1973:046 - MUCKAMORE, Antrim

The supposed site of the Abbey (Early Christian Monastery and Anglo-Norman Augustinian Priory) was marked by a 3m length of rough rubble walling containing an arched opening which was incorporated in the wall of a large 18th (?) century garden. A bad bend in the road, following the line of this wall is to be straightened and the wall removed. It was decided to excavate along the proposed path of the re-aligned road in the now derelict garden to see if in fact local tradition was correct in the assertion that this short length of wall was the last remnant of the old “Abbey”. The wall was 4m high and contained a simple arched opening without splay or any trace of (removed) dressings. The character of the masonry and the shape of the opening was unlike anything which one could visualise as part of an abbey building but there were strong local traditions in the last century of ‘finds’ having been made in the old walled garden.

The excavation first demonstrated that this piece of rubble walling could not be much older than the comparatively recent garden wall; they were built from the same level and run across the top of the surviving stumps of the mediaeval walls which in turn were built on a surface 2m below the present day ground level. The layout of the cuttings was restricted by the curve of the 4m high garden wall and by the line of the edge of the proposed road; only the area immediately threatened was tested but two opposite corners of the cloister and adjacent buildings were located- sufficient to predict approximately the size and layout of the monastic buildings. No finds or structures which could relate to the Early Christian period monastery were recognised. The piece of walling which was stated to be part of the abbey is relatively recent in date and may even be a contrived ‘antiquity’ built out of loose stones from the rubble of the abbey ruins when they were finally cleared off (presumably) for the garden. The 1m depth of topsoil forming the garden make-up appears to have been brought from elsewhere and dumped over the surface of the accumulated mediaeval deposits in the surface of which, at this time, the lines of the ruined abbey walls must have been visible in many places. Perhaps it was considered more convenient to cover these foundations with fresh soil rather than go to the trouble of digging them out and getting rid of the loose rubble.

The Church, on the N side of the cloister, was probably greater than 25m long, of (so far) indeterminate width and without aisles. Part of the interior of the northernmost building of the E range was uncovered. The cloister ambulatory was 2m 20cm wide and the arcade wall survived to a height of 90cm in some places and had a battered outer face with a drainage gully running parallel immediately outside in the cloister garth. The garth was 14m E-W by 21m N-S. It was not possible to adequately examine the interiors of any buildings because the imposed layout of cuttings did not “fit” but the foundations of a latrine building at the S.W. corner, presumably serving the first floor of the west range, was uncovered. A small stream had been directed under this building in a crude boulder-lined culvert. The silting of the stream contained numerous finds of pottery, bronze and iron objects, some heavily concreted with gravel, and 19 coins, 15 of which turned up at the same well-defined level near the top of the silt; the latter group of coins belongs to the early 14th century and seems to provide a terminal date for the accumulation of deposits in the drain. The buildings must have been erected some time after 1185 because a farthing of that date of John de Courcy was found in a shallow feature running under the west cloister arcade wall. All fragments of dressed stone found were quite plain.