Fulacht fia, Killamery, Co. Kilkenny
Co. Kilkenny |
Settlement Sites
On a gentle slope in Killamery, a dark spread of scorched soil and fire-cracked stones sits quietly in the landscape, the kind of feature that most walkers would pass without a second glance.
It measures roughly 15 metres north to south and 11 metres east to west, and a second concentration of burnt material lies some 20 metres to the north-east. Together, they mark the site of a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking place found in enormous numbers across Ireland, typically Bronze Age in date, and almost always sited close to a water source.
The mechanics of a fulacht fia are straightforward but effective. Stones were heated in a fire, then dropped into a water-filled trough, usually timber-lined, which brought the water rapidly to a boil. The process cracked and blackened the stones, which were then discarded into a mound beside the trough. Over centuries, these discarded stones and the charcoal-rich sediment around them accumulated into the low, dark spreads that archaeologists now recognise across the Irish countryside. At Killamery, the low-lying marshy ground at the base of the slope would have supplied exactly the kind of ready water access that these sites consistently require, and the gentle north-westerly incline above it provided a workable surface for the activity. The proximity of the two burnt spreads suggests repeated use of the area, or possibly overlapping episodes of occupation across a long period.