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 when one area proved to be modern. Area 3 consisted of burnt mound material overlying five troughs, four pits and a gully, with some concentrations of stake-holes. The large mound (dims 12.5m x 8.25m; T 0.16m) covered most of the features. A rectangular trough (dims 1.8m x 0.73m; D 0.6m) was outside the mound at NW and had a concentration (dims c. 1.7m x c. 1.2m) of 25 stakeholes just to the SE. These were grouped into four clusters, and two post-holes c. 1.5m to the SE were 1.5m apart. At the N edge of the mound were two troughs. A rectangular trough (dims 2.1m x 1.6m; D 0.3m) was connected by a channel to an oval trough (dims 1.7m x 1.25m; D 0.4m) to its W by a surface gully (L 1.4m). About 2.5m to the S and under the centre of the mound two troughs were placed c. 0.5m apart. One was oval (dims 1.9m x 0.94m; D 0.44m) with three stakeholes in the base and the other rectangular (dims 1.75m x 0.92m; D 0.28m) with a stakehole in each corner. The troughs were filled with slits and clays with varying amounts of burnt stone. There were also some pits, but no artefacts were recovered. (Turrell and Kavanagh 2018, 19-23) See the attached plan from Turrell & Kavanagh (2018, fig. 6) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 5 November 2020