County: Derry Site name: PORTSTEWART: Crossreagh West, Coleraine Rd.
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 3:2 Licence number: —
Author: Declan P. Hurl, Environment Service, Historic Monuments and Buildings, DoE (NI)
Site type: Megalithic structure
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 682034m, N 936482m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.168832, -6.712416
The monument, on the southern outskirts of Portstewart, consists of three upstanding and conjoined stone slabs, apparently the remains of a larger megalithic setting. The landowner wanted to develop the field for housing, but intended to leave the stones; we wished to determine the original extent of the monument. Four 4m x 3m trenches and three 4m x 2m trenches were opened, and the excavation lasted five weeks.
The slabs appeared to stand on the south-east edge of an oval platform, c. 20m x 8m, oriented north-east/south-west. The upslope, north-east portion was covered in stones up to 0.3m in diameter; it had been cut through by a charcoal-filled feature containing a highly-decorated rim-sherd of Early Bronze Age pottery. The rest of the pottery found on the site was mostly Lyle's Hill (Western Neolithic) ware, with a few sherds of Carrowkeel and Sandhills wares; flint flakes, rather than recognisable tools, were found across the site.
At the downslope, south-west end of the site, the platform disappeared, but several pits were uncovered. One was 0.55m in diameter, 0.35m deep, and contained cremated bone and charcoal, sealed by an inverted saddle quern; another was 0.42m in diameter, 0.2m in depth, and contained pulverised bone and half of a crude mudstone macehead.
This site will be published as a report in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology.
5–33 Hill Street, Belfast BT1 2LA
