County: Down Site name: BALLYNAHATTY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Barry Hartwell, Dept of Archaeology, Queen's University, Belfast.
Site type: Pit circle
Period/Dating: Neolithic (4000BC-2501 BC)
ITM: E 732523m, N 867697m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.540280, -5.951970
Work continued in the summer of 1993 on the post-pits of the 'inner timber circle', first examined in 1992 (Excavations 1992, 12). This research excavation, organised as a training exercise by the Dept of Archaeology, was assisted by a grant from Environment Service, Historic Monuments and Buildings, DoE (NI) in recognition of the value of the excavation in providing information useful in the management and interpretation of this particularly important 'archaeological landscape'.
The excavation revealed the carefully designed plan of the Neolithic ceremonial structure–a circle of massive post-pits, with an inner square of pits symmetrically orientated with respect to the entrance. At the centre was a smaller rectangular structure which may have been 'enshrined' within the larger circle and square. Some sherds of Neolithic 'grooved ware' were associated. It is hoped that the excavation will be completed on a smaller scale in 1994.
