Fulacht fia, Liscahane, Co. Cork

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Settlement Sites

Fulacht fia, Liscahane, Co. Cork

In a rough grazing field near Liscahane in County Cork, a low circular mound sits quietly on the north side of a stream.

It measures roughly ten metres across and contains burnt material beneath its surface, the characteristic signature of a fulacht fia. These are among the most common prehistoric monuments in Ireland, yet they remain largely unrecognised by the casual eye, easily mistaken for a natural undulation in the ground.

A fulacht fia is essentially a Bronze Age cooking site, typically consisting of a trough dug into the ground, a hearth for heating stones, and a mound formed from the accumulated debris of cracked and fire-shattered rock. The method was straightforward: stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring the water to a boil. Over time, the thermally fractured stones were discarded, building up the distinctive horseshoe-shaped or circular mound that survives today. The proximity to a stream was not incidental; a reliable water source was essential to the whole operation. Sites of this type date broadly to the second millennium BC, though some may be earlier or later, and they are found in their thousands across Ireland, clustered especially in low-lying, waterlogged ground close to running water.

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