Fulacht fia, Corrantarramud, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Settlement Sites
A low grassy mound sitting in a field in Corrantarramud, County Galway, would attract little attention from anyone passing by.
It measures roughly thirteen metres north to south and eleven metres east to west, rises only about seventy centimetres from the surrounding ground, and is almost entirely covered in grass. But where the turf has worn thin, patches of burnt stone break through, and a faint hollow on the northern side hints at something deliberate beneath the surface.
This is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in large numbers across Ireland and particularly common in Connacht. The basic principle involved heating stones in a fire, dropping them into a water-filled trough until the water boiled, and using that heat to cook meat. The spent, fire-cracked stones were piled to one side after each use, and it is those accumulated dumps of shattered, blackened rock that form the distinctive horseshoe or kidney-shaped mounds we see today. Most date to the Bronze Age, roughly 1500 to 500 BC, though some sites have produced earlier dates. What makes the Corrantarramud example quietly noteworthy is its proximity to another fulacht fiadh recorded some fifty metres to the north-west, suggesting that this particular patch of landscape saw repeated or sustained use over time, perhaps drawing people back to the same ground across generations.
