Fulacht fia in Kilcannon

Identified in centre-line testing (E4110) in advance of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy road scheme and set aside for resolution as Kilcannon 2 (Hardy et al. 2010, 105-06). It is situated at the bottom of a NW-facing slope and in the fold of a SW-NE stream c. 820m from where the stream debouches into a N-S section of the River Slaney. The stream is now channelled c. 10m to the NW at the monument, but its original course is marked on the 1839 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. It was excavated (E4284) by B. Sutton who recorded a horseshoe-shaped mound of broken and burnt stone (dims 14m x 13.8m; max. T 0.8m) open to the SE. The rectangular trough (dims 3.2m N-S; 1.4m E-W; D 0.52m) was just missed by a SW-NE drain at S, but the trough was timber-lined and timber-based. Two side-planks, two end planks, two from the base and two supporting timbers survived, some with lap-joints enabling the timbers to fasten against each other. Some of the timbers were probably re-used, and this is supported by the dendrochronological evidence as two of the five timbers examined have end-dates earlier than the 1535 BC +- 9 years end-dates of the other timbers, which provide a date for the trough. The single C14 date of Cal. BC 1601-1444 from burnt mound material brackets this date. Fulacht fia (WX020-095----) is c. 65m to the NE, and the unrelated pits (WX020-096----) are c. 175m to the SE. (Hull and Ruttle 2012; Sutton 2013) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 28 November, 2013