Fulacht fia, Gowlane, Co. Cork
Co. Cork |
Settlement Sites
In a field of reclaimed pasture near Gowlane in mid Cork, a low grass-covered spread of burnt material sits quietly in the ground, unremarkable to the passing eye but carrying the residue of prehistoric activity that repeated itself countless times across the Irish landscape.
This is a fulacht fia, a type of site found in great numbers throughout Ireland, typically interpreted as an ancient cooking place. The usual form involves a trough, a hearth, and a mound of fire-cracked stone, where water was heated by dropping in stones brought to temperature in a fire. Over time, the discarded, shattered stones accumulated into the characteristic spread or mound that survives.
What makes this particular site quietly melancholy rather than simply ancient is a detail recorded in the inventory of Mid Cork: this fulacht fia was one of three sitting adjacent to one another, and all three were levelled in 1986. The flattening of the mounds means that what remains is not a monument in any upstanding sense but a buried scatter, the burnt and broken stone now pressed into the pasture. Two neighbouring sites carry their own record numbers, suggesting that this small cluster represented something of a concentration of prehistoric use in this part of the landscape, though the ground now gives little indication of that.
Visitor Notes
Added by
