County: Antrim Site name: VOW
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Cormac Bourke, Dept. of Antiquities, Ulster Museum, Belfast
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 691432m, N 916687m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.989389, -6.571310
The river Bann drainage dumps were created in the 1930s and carry mature conifer plantations. A programme of felling and replanting has allowed a programme of archaeological sampling to take place. The results of excavations at Kilrea, Co. Derry, in May 1994 were reported in Archaeology Ireland 29 (Autumn 1994), 8–9, and excavations will take place at Gortgole, Co. Antrim, in 1995.
The dump at Vow, Co. Antrim, was sampled in August 1994. The fill consisted of fine clay and gravel and excavation was confined to a subtriangular area in the western part of the site, some 30x30x20 m in extent, abutting the enclosing bank. The excavated area, although within a large area of clear felling, was circumscribed by drains, proving too small to allow effective stripping and becoming rapidly waterlogged. Work was stopped and backfilling was initiated on the third day, although finds of fragments of steel cable, nuts and bolts and red brick allowed the character of the fill to be established.
