Fulacht fia in Ardbraccan

Situated on a slight S-facing slope and at the N edge of a marshy area. Archaeological testing (04E0584) by N. Fairburn (2004) at Testing Area 11 of Contract 3 of the M3 motorway identified archaeological material (excavations.ie 2004:1158) that was excavated (E003117) by M. Mossop (Mossop et al. 2008) as Ardbraccan 3 (excavations.ie 2006:1488) in May 2006 when 400 square metres were opened. A rectangular, flat-bottomed trough (dims 1.95m NE-SW; 1.32m NW-SE; D 0.39m) with rounded corners cut into the water table and had four fills of silty clays with varying amounts of burnt stone. A sample of hazel charcoal from a lower fill returned a C14 date of 2024-1772 cal. BC (Beta 247127). A large posthole just to the SW was cut by a shallow pit (dims 2.01m NW-SE; 1.4m NE-SW; D 0.14m) that had a basal layer of grey clay with stones beneath a brown charcoal-stained silty clay with heat-shattered stones. Environmental samples from this provided evidence of alder, hazel, ash, cherries and oak. No mound was present but two parallel E-W drains (Wth c. 0.45m; D 0.05m) just 1.8m apart representing a field bank with drains ran over the trough, and also over N-S furrows. The area was also severely compromised by tree boles which did incorporate some broken and burnt stone, suggesting that there may have been a small burnt mound (dims c. 6m x c. 4m) accompanying the trough. (Mossop et al. 2008) See the attached plan from Mossop et al. (2008, fig. 7) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 25 March 2022