Fulacht fia, Uragh, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Fulacht fia, Uragh, Co. Kerry

Three of them.

That is what makes this particular corner of Uragh quietly remarkable: three fulachtaí fia clustered within a short distance of one another, gathered around a river and the edge of Lough Inchiquin as if drawn there by the water itself. A fulacht fia is a type of Bronze Age cooking site, typically consisting of a horseshoe or kidney-shaped mound of fire-cracked stones and charcoal left behind after repeated use. The method is thought to have involved heating stones in a fire and dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring it to a boil, a process that gradually shattered the stones and built up the distinctive burnt mound over time. It is one of the most common prehistoric monument types in Ireland, yet encountering three in such close proximity, on a single stretch of riverbank, gives the site an unusual density.

The mound described here sits on a south-east-facing slope of rough hill pasture, overlooking Lough Inchiquin and just north of a river. It is roughly kidney-shaped, measuring nine metres north to south and four metres east to west, and rises to about 0.7 metres in height. Large stones are incorporated into its southern portion, and its opening, approximately one metre across in both directions, faces west-north-west. The north-west edge has suffered some erosion. Immediately to the east lies a second fulacht fia, and a third sits directly to the south, on the opposite bank of the river. Whether the three were used at the same time or represent activity spread across different periods is not recorded, but their concentration around this particular watercourse is striking.

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