What is recorded here

Five metres of charred oak and birch still warm the memory of Magheracar, where a late Iron Age fire burned bright enough to melt stone and mark the valley slope. The furnace lay hidden beneath boggy pasture until road works revealed its linear cut, built stones and drainage gully. It is easy to imagine hands packing fuel into the eastern chamber while smoke curled across the shallow valley, turning heat into something useful before the land forgot the shape of the work.

In 2004 this monument [Magheracar 2] was fully excavated by Brian O Donnchadha & Rob Lynch of I.A.C. Ltd under excavation licence number 04E0098 in advance of the N15 Bundoran-Ballyshannon By-Pass. The following summary of the excavation is taken from the NRA archaeological database : The site is located on a south-facing slope of low-lying shallow valley. Area of boggy pasture, and underlying geology of poorly drained stony silty clay. This site consisted of a linear earthwork (DG109-008-) and a possible furnace. The linear earthwork is located immediately to the S of the furnace. Furnace A feature was made up of three distinctive components has been interpreted as a possible furnace. The furnace was defined by a linear cut into natural subsoil orientated east-west for a distance of around 5.3 m. The three characteristic components of this furnace were an area of burning (1) at the elevated eastern end of the furnace. This section of the furnace contained a charcoal-rich fill, with heat-affected mudstone. The central area of built stones (2) was steep-sided but irregularly so as to accommodate the stones (0.1-0.47 m by 0.07-0.34 m by 0.15-0.12 m). The possible drainage gully (3) angled slightly eastwards away from the main body of the feature. Charcoal analysis of oak (Quercus sp.) and birch (Betula sp.) from furnace. The furnace was dated to the late Iron Age/ Early medieval period.

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