County: Antrim Site name: MEADOWBANK RATH, Jordanstown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 52:47 Licence number: —
Author: Eoin Halpin and Norman Crothers, ADS
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 736022m, N 884993m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.694655, -5.889907
Trial-trenching and a subsequent investigative excavation were carried out on a raised rath ahead of building development. It was 30m in diameter and 1.4m high, and it was found to consist of six phases of activity. The surrounding ditch was a maximum of 7.6m wide and 2.4m deep, and the associated bank was 3m wide, with an entranceway in the south-east.
Within the rath, at the lowest level, was a structure enclosing an iron-working pit. A later souterrain was constructed, although it was deliberately destroyed in the last phase of occupation, which saw the erection of structures and the laying of a cobbled path.
Finds included lignite bracelets, a perforated whetstone, bone, iron and bronze pins, an iron spearhead, iron slag and tuyere fragments, and sherds of souterrain ware.
Unit 5, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery St., Belfast
