1974:048 - DUNSILLY, Antrim

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Antrim Site name: DUNSILLY

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number:

Author: Dr. T. McNeill, Department of Archaeology. Queen’s University, Belfast

Site type: Castle - motte and Ringfort - rath

Period/Dating: Multi-period

ITM: E 714027m, N 888893m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.735131, -6.229394

The motte, some 4m high and 8m across the top, whose bailey is occupied by a house and farm, was threatened with demolition for land improvement. Excavation of the motte top revealed, beneath the foundations of a Victorian summer-house, a spread of fine cobbling on the motte surface. Apart from a small patch of burning and a dubious stakehole, there was no evidence of any structure on the motte top and little sign that it was ever used. Two ditch sections showed that the motte ditch was V-sectioned and less than 2m deep, in keeping with the slight proportions of the mound. The motte was then sectioned by machinery, and half removed, demonstrating the methods of its construction: and that it was built over a preexisting ringfort. The motte had been set against the ringfort bank on a raft of clay and boulders, and built up by infilling the ring made from the ditch spoil with material produced by steepening the short drop to the stream to the south.

The pre-motte structures involved a four-phase sequence of occupation on the site. Directly on the original ground surface was phase S, consisting of a large stone built hearth, with other smaller ones scattered around, beside the possible site of small rectangular building. Although this phase was unbanked, the charcoal ended along a sharp line beneath the later bank, implying that the site was fenced. Phase T saw the construction of the ringfort bank and ditch, enclosing an area about 60m in diameter, re-used as the motte bailey. There were no other structures in the area excavated belonging to this phase, but it was clear from the use of the ash deposits from the phase S hearths in the make-up of the clay “floor” laid that there was no break in occupation between phases S and T. Phase U saw a further clay floor associated with a small rectangular building, partly destroyed by the motte ditch and partly under the other, unexcavated part of the motte, with continuous wall-slots. In phase V the interior was again heightened and a building, again in part beneath the unexcavated half of the motte, but other wise well preserved. It can be compared to the structure from White Fort, Drumaroad, Co. Down, squarish with walls composed of sods laid on the ground, retained and covered by heavy stones, among which the uprights were apparently wedged: there were no signs of postholes. It had a doorway set asymmetrically in one wall, and along the inside apparently a continuous low wooden bench carried on stones, for soot had accumulated beneath it. In phase W the ringfort was abandoned, and a turf-line grew over the site: immediately before the motte construction the old Phase V house foundations were used as the emplacement for a corn stack which was burned and sealed by the motte.

Finds were undistinguished, but a decorated jug spout from the bottom silt of the motte ditch is of interest for the implications for its date: the motte should have been built c. 1200. From the ringfort levels came a furnace bottom of iron (?) and a little other slag: the souterrain ware was largely plain and uncordoned. Unfortunately the turf lines above and below the ringfort had not preserved any pollen, but it is hoped that C14 samples from phases S and V will help date the ringforts construction and length of use.