Discovered and excavated during the construction of a BGE pipeline in south County Dublin, this intriguing site saw four phases of use. It was first used as a hut site, then as a fulacht fiadh, before a late form of wedge tomb was constructed and abandoned and the site reverted once again to a fulacht fiadh. The gallery of the wedge tomb was left standing and reburied alongside the field boundary that had preserved it until it was exposed by the pipeline construction.

Phase 1: Hut Site
The earliest structure on the site was a small rectangular hut.  The area to the south of the hut was covered in cobbles, which ended at a fence line surviving as a line of stake holes. A flint flake and a 20 mm diameter, undecorated bronze disc were recovered among the cobbles.

Phase 2: Fulacht Fiadh
The posts of the fence line had rotted before an oval pit was dug across a subsurface spring. There was no evidence of a lining within the pit. Heated stones had been used for heating the spring water in this pit, and the firing debris was spread across the cobbled area and across the former fence line.

Phase 3: Wedge Tomb
Some time just after the use of the site as a fulacht fiadh, a megalithic structure was erected. The gallery of the structure was built with orthostats set within a layer of silty clay, which formed a mound measuring 14 m (north-south) by 9 m (east-west). The ground level below the gallery had been reduced prior to construction.

The gallery
The gallery was built with roughly parallel side walls and a closely set outer walling.  It was oriented east-west and measured 2.35 m in length. Two buttress stones were present against the outer walling. The eastern, open, end measured 3.40 m across, and the closed, western, end measured 1.50 m. The internal dimensions of the gallery were 1.95m in length, tapering from 1.42m across at the eastern end to 0.96m across at the western end. There were no surviving traces of a cap stone nor any indication of burials or artefacts.

The cairn and mound
Traces of a cairn were present around and within the gallery. The disposition of the cairn material and absence of a cap stone suggested that some form of wooden roof had been covered in stones. This would give the impression of a low cairn that subsequently slumped into the gallery. There was also a gap in the eastern end of the mound surrounding the gallery. This gap was 2.14m wide and at least 1.65m long. It was positioned directly in front of the opening at the eastern end of the gallery. Two post holes identified at the northeastern side of the mound may have been all that survived of an original ring of posts around the monument.

Phase 4: Fulacht Fiadh
After the roof of the wedge tomb gallery had collapsed, the site reverted to use as a fulacht fiadh. Another larger circular pit was dug across the spring and kerbed with granite boulders, again with no evidence of a lining. The spread of burnt stone and charcoal, from heating water within the pit, sealed the gallery of the wedge tomb to a depth of 0.70 m and covered an area of 23 m (north-south) by 12 m (east-west), preserving the whole site.