Field boundary, Derreenataggart, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Field boundary, Derreenataggart, Co. Cork

On the south-eastern foothills of Miskish Mountain in west Cork, a line of stones pushes up through blanket bog like the spine of something long buried.

It is a relict field boundary, roughly eighty metres long and curving gradually from west to northwest before terminating near another boundary to the north. At its tallest it barely reaches thirty centimetres above the surface, and at its widest it spans about fifty-five centimetres. In other words, it is easy to miss entirely, which is partly what makes it worth attention.

The boundary sits in a level area of rough upland grazing, its eastern end anchored by a north-to-south flowing stream. The stones do not form a wall so much as a trace, a residual outline of enclosure from a period when this boggy ground was being actively managed or farmed. What lends the site a further layer of interest is its proximity to a fulacht fia located approximately ten metres to the northeast. A fulacht fia is a type of prehistoric cooking site, typically identified by a horseshoe-shaped mound of fire-cracked stone and charcoal, and associated with the heating of water in a trough. They are found across Ireland in considerable numbers, often near water sources, and their presence beside this field boundary suggests the area saw sustained human activity over a long period. Whether the boundary and the fulacht fia are contemporary is not established, but the coincidence of the two features on the same stretch of upland is the kind of quiet archaeological layering that tends to go unannounced in landscapes like this one.

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Pete F
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