1998:005 - BUSHFOOT STRAND, Portballintrae, Antrim

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Antrim Site name: BUSHFOOT STRAND, Portballintrae

Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 3:113 Licence number:

Author: Declan P. Hurl, Built Heritage, EHS

Site type: Burial

Period/Dating: Undetermined

ITM: E 693391m, N 942611m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.221862, -6.532189

The police contacted EHS to request an analysis of human remains found protruding from sand dunes outside Portballintrae on the north coast. A brief investigation revealed them to be from a skeleton several centuries old, and it was arranged to excavate them.

The find consisted of a coffined burial oriented east-north-east/west-south-west, with pieces of wood and corroded iron nails still in situ. The upper part of the skeleton had been removed by tidal action, although the bones of the legs, feet and right hand were discernible as those of a robust man of average height and in his late twenties or early thirties when he died. The results of radiocarbon analysis are awaited.

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