Furnace in Killanully — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Killanully is a working furnace inside a rath where iron smoke, not ceremony, shaped the lives of its people. The deep pit and short flue cut through boulder clay like a wound that breathed fire, filling the air with slag and heat while hands turned raw ore into useful edges. What was made there may have been knives, tools or small weapons for the rath and nearby fields. The quarry came later and took much of the shape, but the furnace already knew the purpose of transformation: to consume, break and remade the world into something that could cut back.

Within a rath (CO086-048----). Excavation was carried out in this area in 1992 prior to the commencement of an extension to a nearby limestone quarry (Mount 1992, 14-17; 1993, 10). A furnace within the rath was excavated and consisted of a deep circular pit with a flue which was dug into the boulder clay. The flue extended (L0.6m) to the SE from the furnace. The furnace pit contained five separate layers of fill which included a large quantity of iron slag and some animal bone. According to Mount (1992, 16), the furnace, along with the quantities of iron smelting slag and sharpening stones, points to the involvement of the raths' inhabitants in the production of iron artefacts. A small tanged iron knife found on the site may have been manufactured here (ibid.). (Mount 1992, 14-7; 1993, 10) The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). Date of upload: 22 December 2009

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