1997:074 - INCH/BALLYRENAN, Down

The ten-week excavation of this site was completed on 5 February 1998. It is situated on a bedrock outcrop near the base of Drumlea Hill, on the Inch/Ballyrenan townland boundary.

An initial two-week testing revealed evidence of a ditched enclosure, 38m in diameter, with evidence of occupation in the form of a thin habitation layer and random pits and postholes. As the site was to be destroyed by development, full excavation began on 1 December 1997. Five grids were opened up, dividing the site roughly into quadrants and also incorporating one of the test-trenches. This revealed that much of the rath had been levelled in recent times and as a result almost all of the bank had been destroyed. It also meant that very little stratigraphy remained.

The rath consisted of a subcircular ditch, with one definite entrance to the north-east and another possible one to the south-west. The ditch was 4–5.5m wide and ranged from 0.95m to 1.85m in depth. The shape of the ditch varied between two forms. Where it was cut into bedrock there was a step on the inside edge, and where it was cut into the natural boulder clay it was V-shaped. Dating evidence came in the form of fragments of souterrain ware found in ditch deposits near both entranceways. The ditch encircled the bedrock outcrop to a point where this fell into a steep-sided drop-off some 1.5–2m deep. It is assumed that at this point the outcrop was used as a natural defensive feature.

The only evidence of a bank survived in the eastern and southern quadrants. In the eastern quadrant it consisted of a build-up of compact stony clay upcast material from the ditch, while in the southern quadrant it was a silt clay deposit over which a clayey stone rubble layer was spread. A stone-filled gully was cut into the inner edge of the bank in these two quadrants and is interpreted as a drainage channel. A fragment of a lignite bracelet was recovered from the top of this drainage channel.

The north-east entranceway was 3.5m wide and produced evidence of a gateway structure in the form of five postholes. Four of these were linear in plan and located on the inside of the entrance, while the fifth was situated further out, close to the eastern terminal. There is evidence that the position of the gateway had been moved at some stage, as one of the four postholes had had its post removed and the post-pipe filled with large stones. The fifth posthole suggested that the gateway had also been burnt at some period as a sizeable piece of burnt post was discovered in situ. Upslope and to the south-west of this entrance the remains of a loose cobbled surface survived. No evidence of a bank survived in this area.

The south-west entrance survived as a shallowing out of the ditch to an indistinct terminal, before continuing towards the edge of the outcrop at a depth of 0.1m. From this part of the ditch a large quantity of souterrain ware and iron slag was recovered, from a dump deposit within the ditch. This area was greatly disturbed by a modern pipe-trench and the present field boundary, so interpretation of this entrance is unclear.

Internally a habitation layer that was uncovered during testing was found to survive only on the northern part of the site, producing a few sherds of Early Christian pottery and sitting directly on top of the bedrock. When this layer and another more sandy, silty, contemporary layer were removed down to subsoil, a large number of postholes, pits and stake-holes were uncovered.

One definite rectangular structure survived in the form of two rows of substantial bedrock-cut double postholes. The structure was situated on the highest part of the bedrock outcrop and measured approximately 9m in length and 5m in width, with an entrance to the south-west. The orientation was along the north-east/south-west axis of the rath. Inside the house, evidence of a hearth survived in the form of an area of heavy burning demarked by a slot within which a charcoal-rich deposit with burnt bone was found. Evidence of cooking-pits survived around the southern and western end of the house in the form of burnt pits, one of which had evidence of a cooking facility around it in the form of stake-holes. To the south-east of the structure another circular hut structure c. 3.5m in diameter survived in the form of postholes and stake-holes. Other habitation evidence survived in the eastern quadrant of the site as a number of random postholes.

Evidence for pre-rath activity survived in the form of a hearth pit that had been cut by the ditch near its north-east entrance, as well as several random post-holes under the bank material.

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