1972:050 - BALLYHENRY, Antrim

The rath lay on gently sloping ground over a 1/4 mile S. of rath No. 1 and was threatened by the same development scheme; it comprised a clearly-defined platform, 30m in diameter and 1m 50cm high on average surrounded by (what remained of) two ditches with a low intervening bank. The rath platform was dished and sloped down to the N.E. Excavation revealed few traces of Early Christian period activity (the topsoil was deeply disturbed by tillage) but remains of a stone-delimited hearth, 15 sherds of souterrain ware and a chip of plain blue-glass bead were found. The rath had been contrived around a slight natural eminence at the highest point of which, concentric with the rath, a penannular, v-sectioned ditch or gully had been excavated. This was 1m wide, 70cm deep and 7m in diameter on average and had two diametrically opposed gaps 3m and 2m wide. There was slight evidence to indicate that the feature may have contained wooden walling. Running off from the outside of this ditch were several shallow irregular and featureless gullies, one of which contained a flat stone with two sets of roughly parallel lines forming a crude criss-cross pattern and the sherds of an almost complete ‘flat-rimmed ware’ pot. These gullies run underneath the rath build-up which also sealed n occupation layer. The gullies clearly respect the main penannular gully so it too would seem to be earlier than the rath.