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 when one area proved to be modern. Area 2 consisted of 14 layers of broken and burnt stone interleaved with silts and marls creating a large mound (dims 11m E-W; c. 8m N-S; H c. 0.4m). The mound material was lying over three troughs in a NE-SW line. The N trough is rectangular and round-bottomed (dims 1.7m x 1.4m; D 0.6m) and has a small metalled surface (dims 1.6m x 1m) at its SE edge. It is separated by 2m from the central rectangular trough (dims 2.1m x 1.5m; D 0.72m) with a flat base which has a small hearth (dims 09m x 0.8m) with a fire-reddened base just to the NW. The central tough is separated by c. 1.1m from the sub-triangular and flat-based S trough (dims 1.7m x 1.4m; D 0.5m) at the S edge of the mound. All the troughs were filled with some broken and burnt stones. There were two channels (L 7.3m; Wth c. 1.4m; D 0.4m: L 3.2m; Wth 1.6m; D 0.38m) extending NW and N from the N edge of the mound that meld into the slope with distance from the mound. Three small flints were recovered. (Turrell and Kavanagh 2018, 15-18) See the attached plan from Turrell & Kavanagh (2018, fig. 5) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 5 November 2020