Fulacht fia in Ballinclay

Identified in centre-line testing (E4110) in advance of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy road scheme and set aside for resolution as Ballinclay 2 (Hardy et al. 2010, 38-9). It is situated on towards the bottom of a S-facing slope and was completely excavated (E4189) by B. Sutton when a large rectangular trough (dims 2.3m x 1.5m; D 0.35m) was recorded with 7 stake-holes in the two northern corners, but pits cut the NE (dims 1.9m x 0.8m; D 0.35m) and NW (1.4m x 0.8m; D 0.4m) sides, perhaps to make working platforms or steps down to the trough. The NW cut had 67 stake-holes, perhaps forming a wind-break. There were other pits that could have been troughs; an oval pit (dims 2.65m x 2m; D 0.9m) 5m to the E had a large natural stone in the base but there were 13 stake-holes outside it at NW. Just 1m to the E another oval pit (dims 3m x 1.75m; D 0.49m) was round-bottomed and had silt and clay fills. An oval pit (dims 2.4m x 1.8m; D 0.4m) 1m S of the rectangular trough was largely filled with burnt mound material. These features were beneath a mound of burnt stone material (dims 20.9m E-W; 10m N-S; T 0.07-0.12m), which was overlying smaller layers of this material at the E edge. A hearth (dims 1.4m x 0.8m; T 0.9m) was 12m NW of the trough and outside the mound. Material from the rectangular trough produced a C14 date of cal. BC 888-792, but material from the oval pit produced a C14 date of cal. BC 1432-1313, so a lengthy period of use is indicated. The unrelated pit (WX011-069----) is c. 150m to the NNW and the fulacht fia (WX011-072----) is c. 150m to the SW. (McNamara and Ruttle 2012; Sutton 2013) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 November, 2013