Fulacht fia, Tiroe, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Settlement Sites
Along the south bank of the Lingaun River in County Tipperary, a low mound sits in pasture at the base of a steep north-northeast-facing slope.
Most people walking past it would see nothing more than a slight rise in a field. What they would be looking at is a fulacht fia, one of the most common and least understood monument types in the Irish landscape. These are ancient cooking sites, typically Bronze Age, where water was heated by dropping fire-cracked stones into a trough, and the crescent or horseshoe-shaped mound that remains is largely composed of those discarded, heat-shattered stones. This particular example has been levelled over time, but its D-shaped outline can still be traced, measuring roughly 20 metres north-northeast to south-southwest and 50 metres west-northwest to east-southeast, with the flat, straight side defined by the river itself running along the northern edge.
A second fulacht fia lies about 310 metres to the west-northwest, suggesting this stretch of the Lingaun valley was a place people returned to repeatedly. The proximity of running water was not incidental; a reliable water source was essential to the whole process. A small trapezoidal flint scraper was recovered from this site, as recorded by A. T. Lucas in a 1972 publication. Flint scrapers are tools associated with processing animal hides or plant material, and their presence at fulacht fia sites is not unusual, though it adds a small, tangible dimension to what otherwise remains an anonymous and largely undated activity. A field boundary to the east has since been removed, which will have altered the immediate setting, but the mound itself, though worn down, remains visible from the southwest to west-northwest arc.