Fulacht fia, Kilnahulla More, Co. Cork
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Settlement Sites
In the townland of Kilnahulla More in north Cork, there is a mound beside a spring that has never been properly examined by archaeologists, not because it is inaccessible, or remote, or lost beneath development, but because of a hostile animal.
The site record is disarmingly candid on the point. No inspection was carried out. The mound remains, for now, unverified in person.
What the mound is believed to be is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in enormous numbers across Ireland, typically dating from the Bronze Age. The usual form is a horseshoe-shaped mound of burnt and shattered stone, accumulated over repeated use beside a water source. The standard interpretation is that water in a trough was heated by dropping fire-cracked stones into it, though brewing, hide-working, and bathing have all been proposed as alternative or additional uses. The presence of a spring at this site fits the pattern closely. The mound appears on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map revised in 1937, which places it with enough confidence for it to be recorded, even if no archaeologist has since been able to confirm what lies there on the ground.
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