Fulacht fia in Rockspring

Situated on the S-facing slope of a low E-W spur at the W base of Carrigroe Hill and at the headwaters of a small stream that runs off to the SW. Monitoring of topsoil removal (E004646) during the establishment of a storage area for the construction phase of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy motorway identified five archaeological areas which were excavated (E004809) as Rockspring 2 in February 2017 when one area proved to be modern. Area 1 consists of two fulachta fia and a burnt mound, all badly cut by E-W stone drains. This eastern fulacht fia has a rectangular trough (dims 1.6m x 1.6m; D 0.5m) with stakeholes at the corners of the trough and others surrounding its rim. The trough was filled with sandy clay and heat-shattered stones. The trough was recut as a subcircular feature (dims 1.95m x 1.6m; D 1.25m) just to the N of the original and this one may have been lined with clay. Its fill consists of five layers with varying amounts of ash or charcoal. A natural hollow (dims 4.5m x 3.2m; D 0.11m) just SE of the trough was filled with some redeposited burnt stone. The mound (dims 16m N-S; 4.9m N-S; T 0.06m) lay just to the S and was truncated by an E-W drain at S. No artefacts were recovered (Turrell & Kavanagh 2018, 9-14) See the attached plan from Turrell & Kavanagh (2018, fig. 4) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload; 5 November 2020