1980-84:0007 - BELFAST: Town Parks td., Castle Street, Antrim

An L-shaped trench, c. 370sq.m, was laid out at the N. end of the site of Brands and Normans, closest to the probable site of Belfast Castle. Removal of the store floor by machine revealed the surface of a thick black soil layer cut by modern walls and containing 17th-century artefacts. Though apparently homogeneous, the finds became earlier as the layer was removed, and it probably represented a build-up of surfaces. It sealed a brick-built drain and the large robber trench’ of a removed wall- probably a related enclosure wall rather than part of the actual structure of Chichester’s ‘castle’. The alignments were N.W.-S.E. which is contrary to modern boundaries but agrees with 17th-century pictorial evidence, though this is out of scale.
Below this horizon were ephemeral medieval deposits. including a large pit, containing shells, hazelnuts, wood and other organic material, and part of a sizeable ditch. Sherd of everted rim cooking pottery and glazed wares were found at this level, as well as a possible piece of souterrain ware.