Fulacht fia, Derrynacaheragh, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Fulacht fia, Derrynacaheragh, Co. Kerry

On a south-facing slope in rough hill pasture above the Feabunaun stream valley in Kerry, a low grass-covered mound sits quietly on the northeast bank of a stream.

Oval in shape and modest in scale, measuring roughly four metres east to west and three metres north to south, with a height of just 0.65 metres, it would be easy to walk past without a second glance. What lies beneath the grass, however, is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found widely across Ireland, typically consisting of a mound of burnt and fire-cracked stones discarded after repeated use in heating water.

Fulachtaí fia are generally associated with the Bronze Age, and the siting of this example is characteristic of the type: close to a reliable water source, in a slight hollow, and surrounded by what appear to be the remnants of much older field systems. Those relict field boundaries hint at a landscape that was once considerably more organised and inhabited than its present rough-pasture appearance suggests. What makes this particular spot quietly notable is that it does not stand alone. Approximately twenty metres to the northwest lies a second fulacht fia, suggesting that this stretch of hillside above the Feabunaun was a place of some repeated or sustained activity during prehistory, rather than a single isolated episode.

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Pete F
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