Fulacht fia, Garraundarragh, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Fulacht fia, Garraundarragh, Co. Kerry

In a marshy field in Garraundarragh, Co. Kerry, a low kidney-shaped mound sits quietly between two roads, looking at first glance like little more than a slight rise in the grass.

It measures eight metres north to south and seven metres east to west, and rises only thirty centimetres at its highest point. On its western side, a faint trough, about a metre wide, remains just visible. This is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in great numbers across Ireland, typically identified by a horseshoe or kidney-shaped mound of burnt and fire-cracked stone, accumulated over repeated use. The standard interpretation is that stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to a boil, though some researchers have proposed the sites were used for bathing, textile processing, or brewing.

What makes this particular example quietly notable is its immediate surroundings. The mound sits in a level, marshy field between the old N21 road to the west and the newer N21 alignment to the east. When the new road was constructed, the ground on the eastern and northern sides of the mound was raised by between one and two metres as part of land improvement works. The fulacht fia itself was left largely undisturbed, but it now sits in a kind of lowered pocket, the artificially raised ground forming a subtle ridge around part of it. The marshy ground it occupies is typical of the environments in which these monuments are most often found, as prehistoric communities seem to have deliberately sited them near reliable sources of water.

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Pete F
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