What is recorded here

Knockans Upper holds a ruined fulacht fia where a bulldozer tore through ancient heat to make a farm track. The mound still shows blackened soil and loose burnt stones, while ash spreads beneath the new wheel ruts. People may have boiled fish or cleaned tools in that valley long before trucks rumbled past, but human urgency erased much of the proof.

On wet, rush-covered ground in a narrow, NE-SW valley between the 400’ and 500’ contours. Listed as ‘Fulachta fiadh’ in the RMP (1996), based on reports by Tom Coffey and Ann Lynch (SMR file); the latter noting extensive damage by a bulldozer in the then-recent past, as a consequence of ground clearance for a farm track. This almost destroyed fulacht fia survived only as a denuded mound (15m NE-SW; 12m NNW-SSE) of blackened soil and stone. There were two relatively undisturbed portions of the mound; one (L 4.5m; H 1m) at the NNW with several large loose burnt stones lying on top, and a second portion (L 3m; H 1m) at the SSE where some briars and blackthorns grew. The large stones may be the displaced lining stones from a trough. During an inspection in 1999, burnt stone and ash covered the surface of the bulldozed trackway for 9m to the SSE of the damaged fulacht fia, and silverweed, black knapweed, daisy, red clover and buttercup grew on the site. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 26 May 2023

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