The most recent Ice Age, which lasted in this region from c.30,000-12,000 years B.P. not only determined the topographical character up to the present, but eradicated almost all archaeological evidence of earlier habitation.
Archeology
History of Ireland in Episodes
I received as a Christmas gift, the paperback of this work – released last Christmas in hardback – after running on BBC Radio Ulster for months of short programmes. It is excellent.
Bronze Age/Neolithic homes
It is exactly two years since we posted results of the archaeological finds in the Loughbrickland area, unearthed at the construction of the new dual carriageway …
Goward Dolmen
Who better to show one the architectural and archaeological treasures of the Hilltown area than local Green Party councillor Ciaran Mussen? I had the quick tour but am promised the whole thing in the near future. Ciaran hopes to set up a local walking group and I’m optimistic he will accept a Nyuck interloper too!
Annacloughmullion Cairn
Should you be fortunate enough to come across the only remaining relic, a single Menir (Pillar Stone) in a field in Lislea, you will have little or no understanding of what has been lost!
This Pillar Stone just to the north-west on the Slieve Gullion Ring Dyke is a menhir, – a tall, upright stone that once formed a tiny part of the Annaghcloughmullion cairn, an edifice in its time worthy of those at New Grange, Howth and Dowth in the Boyne Valley.
Fulacht Fiadh
In connection with the recent archaeological finds at Loughbrickland we noted that a Fulacht Fiadh site may have been identified.
Our photo shows one a Fulacht Fiadh at Rathlogan, Kilkenny which portrays the typical horseshoe shaped mound and the normal location in marshy ground close to a water source. The practice of using such sites persisted from the Bronze Age (the later of the two recently identified settlement eras near Loughbrickland) into the historic period and the method of using them is well described in early texts. Their remains are frequently discovered during land reclamation.
Almost invariably they contain a rectangular pit lined with wooden planks or stone slabs to form a trough, discovered during archaeological excavation under the open part of the horseshoe-shaped mound. Water was heated in the trough by rolling hot stones into it from a nearby fire. It has been proved by experiment that water can be boiled in this way and meat cooked in it. The hot stones often shattered on contact with the water and the mound was formed by shovelling the broken stones out of the trough for the next cooking session. Part of the timber trough often survives in the damp conditions often prevailing on these sites.