Platform - peatland, Derryfadda, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Ritual/Ceremonial
Buried beneath a stretch of flat bogland in County Tipperary, a carefully laid timber platform was uncovered at Derryfadda, sitting directly above an even older feature that had once been used to cook meat using fire-heated stones.
The relationship between the two is quietly arresting: one ancient structure built on top of another, separated by centuries of accumulating peat.
The platform measured roughly 5.75 metres north to south and 3.9 metres east to west, and was constructed from roundwoods and brushwoods arranged in a south-west to north-east orientation. Roundwoods are essentially unworked timber lengths taken directly from branches or small trunks, while brushwood refers to thinner, flexible stems and twigs; the combination was a practical and well-attested method for creating a stable surface over waterlogged or unstable ground. Beneath the platform lay a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in great numbers across Ireland, typically identified by a characteristic mound of heat-shattered, fire-cracked stone left over from repeated use. The site was recorded by Murray and Ó Néill in 1999. What prompted the building of a platform at this particular spot, and what it was used for, remains open to interpretation, though the deliberate positioning over an earlier site suggests the location carried some continuing practical or perhaps cultural significance.

