1999:014 - PORT OF LARNE, Antrim

The Port of Larne authorities were planning to reduce the height of a parking area adjacent to the docks to facilitate freight traffic. This investigation was intended to assess the potential for archaeological survival within the development area.

The site encompasses an area 200m north-south by on average 100m east-west, standing c. 3.5m higher than the surrounding ground. The ground is currently under concrete, with the site being used as a storage area for haulage containers.

A site assessment carried out by Eoin Halpin in 1995 (Excavations 1995, 2) had noted the presence of a possible old ground surface in the north-western corner, but elsewhere this surface had appeared to have been scarped away during the construction of the storage area.

Owing to the number of developments that have taken place along the Curran Point area, the site represented one of the last possible raised beach areas within the immediate vicinity of Larne. A second assessment, concentrated in the north-west corner of the site, was carried out in December 1999, to evaluate the archaeological potential of both the old ground layer and what it had sealed.

Two trenches were investigated, in the north-western corner of the site. The stratigraphic sequence encountered in both was virtually identical, and it was generally uniform across each trench, although the western half of Trench 2 had concrete walls and floor slabs set deep below the concrete surface. Both trenches measured c. 11.5m east-west by 13.5m. Trench 1 incorporated the western 13m of the 1995 assessment Trench l.

Immediately underlying the lowest layer of modern infill was an organic-smelling, 'soddy', black/dark grey/brown layer, which had been previously flagged as a possible old ground surface. Investigation concluded that it was indeed an old ground layer that extended across the eastern half of Trench 2 and most of Trench 1. It varied in depth across the trenches from 0.03m to 0.23m. Numerous struck flints, consistent with the Late Mesolithic heavy blade industry, and Neolithic flint scrapers were recovered, along with some post-medieval pottery, roof slate, metal and red brick fragments. The post-medieval finds were intrusive to the old ground surface and found just within its upper surface, having been mechanically pushed into the soft old ground deposit during the layering of the modern infilling.

Underlying the old ground surface and extending across the entire trench was a raised beach deposit, consisting of water-rolled pebbles and much struck flint within a loose, dark brown, sandy matrix. Excavation of one test-pit in the south-east corner of Trench 2 indicated that the raised beach material extended for at least 4m below the concrete surface, with large flakes and cores, indicative of the Late Mesolithic period, being recovered at this depth. The remaining raised beach material was left in situ.

In the south-eastern corner of Trench 1 a large pit was excavated cutting through this raised beach material. A large quantity of Late Bronze Age cooking ware was recovered from the fill, along with some struck flint. During the excavation of the test-pit in Trench 2, several features-small pits/post-holes-were recorded in the section faces, and it is presumed that these features also date to the Bronze Age and are associated with the pit excavated in Trench 1.

While the recovery of Late Mesolithic struck flints within the raised beach material was to be expected, the discovery of a large Bronze Age pit adds a new dimension to this area of Larne's prehistory. Further excavation will clarify the nature of this Bronze Age activity.

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