County: Down Site name: BALLYNAHATTY 5, Ballynahatty
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Barrie Hartwell, Dept. of Archaeology, Queen’s University Belfast
Site type: Enclosure - large enclosure
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 732523m, N 867897m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.542075, -5.951880
The Giant's Ring in Ballynahatty Td. (BNH 1), is a large, well-preserved henge surrounding a passage grave at the southern end of an isolated plateau overlooking the River Lagan on the southern outskirts of Belfast. There is documentary evidence of a number of other Neolithic and Bronze Age burials having been found outside the enclosure in the 18th and 19th centuries (McAdam, 1855). Recent air photography has located a number of sites adjacent to the Ring. Of particular interest is a cropmark of a large, double palisaded enclosure (BNH5), 70m x 90m in extent containing a much smaller, circular and similarly constructed enclosure at its eastern end (BNH6).
A three week excavation was undertaken at the eastern end of the larger enclosure during September 1990 where the cropmarks had been obscured, and the archaeology hopefully protected, by a deeper soil cover. However, the earlier archaeological levels had been destroyed by recent cultivation, though a number of features could be seen cut into the sandy, natural subsoil.
A concentration of stones was found at the western end of the section which corresponds to the edge of a parch mark on an air photograph and which may be the remains of a burial cairn. Corresponding to the line of the large enclosure was found a number of pits. They proved to be about 0.6m wide, at least 1.4m in depth and probably held substantial posts. The regular order of the two rows of pits (about 2m apart) seen on the air photographs presented a more confusing picture when excavated, possibly of the two lines running together. No artefacts were stratified with these features and so dating of the pits, and therefore of the enclosure, will have to rely on radiocarbon dating. Adequate quantities of charcoal were retrieved during wet sieving of soil samples from the fill. 85% of the identifiable charcoal was from substantial oak timbers. Samples are being dated by the Radiocarbon Laboratory in the Palaeoecology Centre, QUB. Until firm dating is established it could be assumed that the enclosure is probably late Neolithic or early Bronze Age by analogy with similar enclosures and associations of sites at Newgrange in the Boyne Valley (Sweetman 1985) and near Avebury in Wiltshire (Whittle and Smith 1990). The work was aided by a grant from Historic Monuments and Buildings Branch , DOE (NI).
References
McAdam, R. (1855) Discovery of an ancient sepulchral chamber. Ulster Journal Archaeol. Series 1, Vol 3 358—65.
Sweetman, D. (1985) A late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age pit circle at Newgrange, Co. Meath. PRIA 85C, 195—221.
Whittle, A. and Smith, R. (1990) West Kennet. Current Archaeology 118 362—5.
