Fulacht fia, Lismoynan, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Settlement Sites
Some archaeological sites are remarkable for what can be seen.
This one is remarkable for what can no longer be seen at all. On a gently sloping pasture field above a small valley in Lismoynan, County Tipperary, there is nothing visible at ground level to suggest that anything of interest lies beneath the grass. Yet local memory, recorded within living experience, describes a classic horseshoe-shaped mound of stone and black soil sitting here until perhaps thirty or forty years ago, roughly seven to eight metres across, the kind of shape immediately recognisable to anyone familiar with Irish prehistory.
A fulacht fia is a type of ancient cooking site found in enormous numbers across Ireland, typically consisting of a mound of fire-cracked stone and charcoal-rich soil arranged in a horseshoe around a trough where water was heated by dropping in stones from a fire. They cluster near water sources and are generally dated to the Bronze Age, though some span a much longer period of use. The Lismoynan example occupied a natural plateau defined by a low scarp cut into the hillside, with the ground rising about two metres above the monument to the north-west, a sheltered and practical position just above the valley floor. What probably erased it was the removal of a nearby field boundary or drainage works carried out in recent decades. Either activity, commonplace enough in the context of agricultural improvement, would have been sufficient to level the mound entirely.