1989:002 - DRUMAHEGLIS MARINA, Drumaheglis, Antrim

Drumaheglis townland lies on the east bank of the Bann north of the Agivey Bridge. Most townlands in the area contain dump sites from the Bann drainage scheme which produced many artefacts just before the 1939-45 war. These artefacts were of all periods, concentrated at the ford areas, notably at Loughan Island and Agivey. The bulk of this material comprises Bann Flakes and microliths with a distinctive opaque orange patina.

In the late spring of 1989, work commenced on a site at Drumaheglis to create a new marina. The contractor dredged a small area near to the river bank. There were also extensive excavations from the bank inland to provide foundations and it was decided to instigate a small-scale site-watch to locate any new material. Two searches with a metal detector were made in addition to the visual inspections to try to ensure that no material was lost (sanctioned by the Ulster Museum and the DOE). Since the vast bulk of earth investigated was either small recent dredger dumps or piles of much-disturbed topsoil, the chances of adversely affecting stratigraphy by random digging was negligible. In the event, the only metal detected was contractor's debris. No archaeological features within the soil were observed.

Three soil types were obvious: (i) ordinary rich field topsoil (from the original field surface); (ii) coarse yellow to red sand (from a washed-out old dredging dump); (iii) very fine, dense blue/grey sludge (Newly dredged material).

All the brown flint material found was from the sandy soil and all of the grey flint came from excavated and relaid topsoil. The following sequence of events is proposed.

The bank has been in its present position for a very long time as evidenced by the good quality topsoil. At some time the bank was used as a minor dump for dredged material (probably in the 1930s). This material would have been from the top of the river bed, probably at the central channel, and is thus coarse, having been continuously washed by the stream.

Finally, the finer, recently dredged, material came from a deeper river bed level near the bank and gained its peculiar colour by the deposition of fines and chemicals which had leached into it.

From this it would seem that the brown flint found was in general river wash from some unidentified Late Mesolithic site upstream, and the grey flint came from the bank, the remains of a small short-lived site from a later lithic period.

Most finds were of heavily patinated orange to brown flint: Few complete pieces were found and most fragments had heavy patination on broken faces and thus were broken in antiquity. Twenty-one fragments were large enough to show that they were pieces of large, keeled leaf-shaped flakes. This patination and form in the Bann area indicates a Bann Flake industry related to the later Mesolithic. One piece has a small area of retouch which cuts through the patination. It would appear that this piece was Mesolithic struck flint, found in the Neolithic or Bronze Age, which was reused.

Seven fresher pieces of struck flint were found with a grey to white patination. These were from the field topsoil and they show no evidence at all of the heavy iron-staining which is a feature of material exposed to long immersion in the river. These pieces are generally finer than the brown flint and are more typical of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age sites.

A further twenty pieces of brown flint were found. These were so amorphous from rolling or so irregularly broken that they are unclassified. There is only a small possibility that they are the remnants of struck flakes.

Finds have been deposited with the collection belonging to Ballymoney Borough Council which is kept in Ballymoney Town Hall.

Clegnagh House, Moss Side, Armoy, Ballymoney, BTS3 8UB, NI