2000:0002 - BALLYCARRY, Antrim

The proposed development of a new community centre was located to the west of the Main Street in Ballycarry, Co. Antrim. It was situated some 150m from the outer edge of an ecclesiastical enclosure (SMR 47:10) and was therefore unlikely to affect any associated archaeology. The Brakenberg church site (SMR 47:9), however, is more problematic. Its exact location is unknown, and the discovery in the 19th century of foundations and human remains in the area of Main Street means that the possibility of uncovering some archaeological remains associated with the chapel and/or graveyard was relatively high.

The development consisted of the replacement of the existing Ballycarry community hall, a prefabricated building placed on a concrete substructure, with a larger, purpose-built structure. The new building was to be located immediately to the west of the existing structure. The construction of the foundations will consequently be in previously undisturbed ground. It was decided that existing services would be adequate for the new building, and the site of the old hall will be utilised as a carpark for the new building.

The assessment consisted of the testing of the lines of the foundation trenches with the aid of a small mechanical digger with blade bucket. The bedrock and associated subsoils were c. 0.8m below present ground level. These were covered with deposits of garden soils, probably associated with the rear plots of the houses that once fronted onto Independent Street, which ran east–west to the north of the present site. Finds of 19th- and 20th-century date were recovered from this deposit, as well as the remains of a beast carcass. The area was subsequently levelled off with infill and gravel, presumably associated with the clearance of the area and the construction of the present community hall.

Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ