County: Antrim Site name: BALLYGORTGARVE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Mr. C.J. Lynn, Historic Monuments Branch, Ministry of Finance
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 714527m, N 875996m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.619195, -6.226690
Excavations at this site were necessitated by an impending farm improvement scheme. The ringfort lay on damp waste ground covered with clumps of rushes on a slope below the edge of a large level, well-drained field. On the surface it showed as a slight, annular, grassy rise in the ground, widest to the eastern uphill side. There was no sign of an entrance and only the faintest indications of a ditch.
Extensive trenching of the interior produced no evidence whatsoever of habitation. Instead the interior area had been a natural shallow depression in which a depth of up to 1m of peat had accumulated where the remains of the bank were sectioned it proved to have been thrown up on top of peat. Though compressed very thin under the centre of the bank this peat thickened inwards, presumably as the weight of the tail of the bank diminished, and this indicated that a depth of peat in the interior was comparable with the present depth when the bank was thrown up. Immediately outside the bank a flat-bottomed ditch 3m wide and 1m 80cm deep was found. The site was intersected by a least 6 modern drains some stone-filled, others piped, showing that earlier and unsuccessful attempts had been made to drain the land. At some stage the bank had been levelled into the partially filled ditch. The lower 70cms of ditch had filled with peat and towards the bottom of this in the 2m-wide section 1 sherd of souterrain pottery and several pieces of worked wood were found. Where the ditch section extended to the level ground outside a small plain bead of blue glass was found in the ‘old soil’ which here also contained some charcoal.
These finds suggested that the site had been constructed during the period usually assigned to ringforts. However it was not occupied for any length of time but people seemed to have been living nearby. Six spaced trail-trenches 2m x 2m were excavated on the better drained ground outside the ringfort opposite the point where the few finds and charcoal had been located. No further evidence for occupation was recovered.
