Fulacht fia, Tipper, Co. Kildare
Co. Kildare |
Settlement Sites
In a wet, low-lying corner of Tipper in County Kildare, a modest crescent of earth sits alongside five others of its kind, all clustered in the same damp ground. These are fulachtaí fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in considerable numbers across Ireland, typically consisting of a horseshoe-shaped mound of burnt and shattered stone beside a trough that would once have been filled with water and heated by dropping fire-cracked rocks into it. They tend to congregate near boggy or waterlogged areas, and this group of six is a fairly typical example of that pattern.
When the site at Tipper was recorded in 1955, this particular mound was described as semi-circular in plan, measuring nine metres in length and standing just a quarter of a metre high. That low profile is characteristic of the type; centuries of weathering and, in many cases, agricultural activity have compressed what were once more prominent features into subtle rises in the landscape. The presence of six such monuments in such close proximity suggests repeated or sustained use of this area during prehistory, though exactly when they were built or used is not specified in what has been recorded about them.