County: Antrim Site name: CASTLE UPTON, Templepatrick
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 50:137 Licence number: —
Author: Ciara McManus, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Habitation site
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 722425m, N 885893m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.706223, -6.100322
Excavation, ahead of the construction of a hotel and golf-course, continued on a site adjacent to Castle Upton where cropmark sites were identified, and monitoring revealed further archaeological survival (see also A. Gahan, Excavations 1997, 3.)
Four trenches were excavated. The first, 50m x 30m, exposed an area of charcoal staining, 7.5m in diameter, containing a central hearth; flint scrapers and flakes and Bronze Age pottery were recovered. Within the second trench, 20m x 30m, was a subcircular pit, 1.83m x 1.52m, containing Bronze Age pottery and burnt bone. The third trench, a machine-stripped area c. 28m in diameter, contained a stone-filled slot 5m long, 0.3m wide and 0.2m deep. Within the last trench, 30m x 19m, were a gully, 0.4m wide and 0.14m deep, and another pit, 0.64m in diameter and 0.16m deep.
Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ
