County: Down Site name: SCRABO
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Miss M. Owens, Ards Historical Society
Site type: Hut sites
Period/Dating: Iron Age (800 BC-AD 339)
ITM: E 746920m, N 871996m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.574903, -5.727516
Excavation of the hut circle continued for a short period during the early part of the year, its main purpose being to clear an area around the outside of the hut and to have a closer look at the main features found the previous year inside the hut.
An area about 6m in length and 2m in width between the excavated site and the circle adjacent to it was cleared but nothing of any major significance was revealed. Inside the hut the wall trench was completely cleared and was found to be well defined to the south. This confirmed for us that the walls of the hut had been made of wood and other vegetable matter and that the stones surrounding the circle were there only as a support for these walls. The area around the pit to the south was also cleared and revealed one larger posthole which was, from its position in relation to those already found, possibly used as support for the roof and not related to the construction within the hut of which the pit was an integral part. It was here that the only finds of this short excavation were found and these amounted to a few pottery sherds similar to those found in previous years.
A radiocarbon date of 355 + 70 BC. having been put on Scrabo it is now necessary to see what correlation can be found between this site and others of a similar period in Ireland.
