Fulacht fia, Kilmoney, Co. Kildare
Co. Kildare |
Settlement Sites
In a gently sloping field in County Kildare, a low oval mound sits quietly in improved pasture, unremarkable to a passing eye but carrying within it the remnants of prehistoric cooking. This is a fulacht fia, a type of monument found in considerable numbers across Ireland, typically dating to the Bronze Age. The basic principle involves heating stones in a fire, dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring it to a boil, and using the resulting heat to cook meat. The characteristic mound that remains is formed from the accumulated debris of that process, chiefly the cracked and fire-shattered stones discarded after each use. This particular example measures roughly seven metres east to west and five metres north to south, rising only half a metre above the surrounding ground.
What makes the site at Kilmoney quietly notable is that it belongs to a cluster. Three other closely associated monuments survive nearby, and when they were recorded in 1957 they were described collectively as four ancient cooking sites that had already been ploughed out during land reclamation work. That agricultural disturbance is significant; ploughing tends to flatten and disperse the material that gives a fulacht fia its visible profile, which makes the survival of even a modest mound here something worth noting. The fact that four such sites are grouped together in one area suggests repeated or sustained prehistoric activity in this particular landscape, though the nature and chronology of that activity remain unrecorded in any detail.