Fulacht fia in Ballycarrigeen Lower

Situated in a hollow in a gently undulating landscape. Archaeological testing (E004781) of an area required for the construction phase of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy motorway in November 2016 (Whitty and Coughlan 2017) identified archaeological features (excavationis.ie 2017:167)which were fully excavated (E005033) in January 2019 as a part of Ballycarrigeen 11, Area 4 when it proved to be two fulachta fia (excavations.ie 2019:319). This feature consists of a burnt mound spread and three troughs. Six stakeholes, sealed beneath an alluvial deposit are beneath the mound (dims 8.35m x 6.8m; T 0.18m) which is centred on a trough (dims 1.73m x 1.38m; D 0.48) at its S edge which may have been re-cut once and had three fills of sandy clay with burnt stone. Fifteen stakeholes around the edge of the base probably formed a lining. Two subcircular troughs (dims 1.5m x 1.1m; D 0.33m: 1.68m x 1.52m; D 0.3m) were immediately adjacent to each other at the W edge of the mound, and each had 11 stakeholes in its base. The S trough was re-cut once but both were filled with silty clays or sands with burnt stones. A fragment of alder charcoal from the N subcircular trough provided a C14 date of 2024-1774 cal. BC (UBA – 43528), while the trough just to its SW yielded a radiocarbon determination of 1629-1507 cal. BC (UBA – 43529). The central trough is closely contemporary with the last as a piece of alder charcoal returned a C14 date of 1615-1504 cal. BC (UBA – 43530). Seventeen stakeholes were sealed beneath the mound, mostly between the central and W troughs, but there are clusters close to the W troughs. No artefacts were recovered and the mound was cut by two NE-SW drains. (Kavanagh & Vleeshouver 2020, 5-14) See the attached site plan from Kavanagh and Vleeshouver 2020, fig. 5 Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 19 November 2020 Amended: 8 November 2022