Fulacht fia, Poulacapple, Co. Tipperary

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Settlement Sites

Fulacht fia, Poulacapple, Co. Tipperary

In a forestry plantation near Poulacapple in County Tipperary, a low mound of blackened soil and fire-cracked stone sits within a buffer zone of young trees, largely unremarked.

It is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in great numbers across Ireland, typically recognised by precisely this combination: a horseshoe-shaped mound of heat-shattered stone, dark organic soil, and, originally, a timber-lined trough nearby that would have been filled with water and brought to the boil by dropping in fire-heated stones. The mound at Poulacapple is modest, roughly five metres across and only fifteen centimetres high, and its survival seems almost accidental.

The site was identified during a field survey in August 2010, at which point the surrounding forestry was estimated to be between seven and ten years old. It appears the planting activity may have inadvertently exposed the mound rather than destroyed it, and it was subsequently preserved in place within the plantation's buffer zone, a strip of unplanted ground maintained around features of archaeological or ecological interest. The mound itself is defined not only by its slight rise and distinctive dark fill but by differential vegetation growth, where the disturbed, charcoal-rich soil encourages plant growth that differs visibly from its surroundings. Roughly thirty-one metres to the south-east lies a possible enclosure, suggesting the area may have seen more sustained prehistoric activity than the single mound alone implies.

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