Fulacht fia in Toom

Identified in centre-line testing (E4110) in advance of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy road scheme and set aside for resolution as Toom 1 (Hardy et al. 2010, 73). It is situated in the valley of a small E-W stream, which is c. 10m to the S. Full excavation (E4168) by M. McNamara revealed a NE trough (dims 1.35m x 1m; D 0.4m) truncated at NW by a pit (dims 2.75m x 1.79m; D 0.25m), and a truncated SW trough (dims 1.87m x 1.36m; D 0.65m). The troughs were c. 3m apart and both were beneath a burnt stone spread (dims 7.5m NE-SW; 3.6m NW-SE; max. T 0.31m) that was partially covered at E by silt from a N-S palaeochannel . The channel was partially excavated (E4167) as Toom 2 (McNamara 2013b) together with a hearth (dims 0.75m x 0.56m; D 0.3m) that was located c. 10m N of the fulacht fia, which the hearth probably served. The channel (exposed L 7.25m; exposed Wth 3m) was filled with a grey silt that had flecks of orange clay and small pebbles. The NE trough produced a C14 date of cal. BC 968-823, and from the SW trough the dates varied from cal. BC 1042-908. The fulacht fia (WX020-102----) is c. 85m to the WSW and the unrelated hearth (WX020-107----) is c. 130m to the SE in Ballydawmore townland. (McNamara 2012; 2013a; 2013b) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 28 November, 2013