County: Down Site name: BALLYGINNY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: N.F. Brannon, DoE
Site type: Souterrain
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 736921m, N 834704m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.242858, -5.899234
A one day excavation took place to establish the plan of the souterrain and determine associated stratigraphy. A 4m+ length of dry-stone walling proved to be the inner face of one side wall, sitting in a soil and rock cut trench some 0.6m below the stone face and filled with uncoursed granite boulders. Of the two ‘niches’ discovered, one might have been an air-vent while the other proved to be collapsed walling.
The floor was the bottom of the receiving trench and composed of loose bedrock. Apart from small patches of charcoal, there were no layers or features. A clay pipe stem and a fragment of brick, probably 18th century, were sealed below wall collapse. There was no sign of the other wall and no indication of its original length.
Apparently a chamber built of dry-stone boulders, 2m long and 1.5m high, exists below the sloping driveway of the neighbouring house. Although it sounds like another souterrain, the topography would rule out a connection between the structures.
