County: Antrim Site name: CARRICKFERGUS: Woodburn Abbey
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: N.F. Brannon, Historic Monuments Branch, DOE
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 740221m, N 886993m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.711456, -5.823857
Excavations took place from 6-12 Sept. '84, with machine assistance and three assistants. Five E-W machine trenches, at 16m intervals, were cut across the car park from N-S, with the intention of locating abbey remains and then expanding the excavations. In each case the trenches revealed up to 1m of car park materials directly overlying subsoil clay. At no time were any soils (ancient or otherwise) revealed, nor was there any evidence for deeper features such as wall bases, ditches or graves.
Since the engineers' plans for the car park construction called for the removal of at least 45cm of pre-existing ground levels, it seems likely that either a) this was not the site of substantial medieval buildings and occupation, or b) that any traces were erased during the car park construction.
