Fulacht fia, Johnstown, Co. Wicklow

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Settlement Sites

Fulacht fia, Johnstown, Co. Wicklow

On the edge of Johnstown in County Wicklow, beneath what is now the Arklow bypass, lay the remains of a prehistoric cooking site of considerable complexity.

A fulacht fia is a type of ancient outdoor cooking place, typically consisting of a water-filled trough into which fire-heated stones were dropped to boil the water, with the cracked and shattered remnants of those stones accumulating over time into the characteristic horseshoe-shaped mound that survives in the landscape. They are among the most common prehistoric monuments in Ireland, yet individually they rarely attract much attention. This one, however, was more elaborate than most.

Excavation by archaeologist Patricia Lynch, carried out under licence 97E207 as part of the Arklow bypass road scheme, revealed not one trough but three, along with eight hearths and approximately one hundred stake- and post-holes. That last detail is significant: post-holes suggest timber structures of some kind, possibly shelters or working frameworks erected around the cooking area, implying repeated or organised use rather than a casual, one-off event. The entire complex was associated with a spread of burnt mound material, the fire-cracked stone and charcoal-rich earth that accumulates at these sites over many episodes of use. Taken together, the three troughs, multiple hearths, and dense scattering of structural evidence point to a site that was returned to and worked with some regularity, though the precise period of its use was not detailed in the available record.

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