County: Antrim Site name: BELFAST: Sirocco Works, Ballymacarrett
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 4:6 Licence number: AE/00/60
Author: Alice Lyall, NAC
Site type: Riverine revetment
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 734802m, N 874315m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.599107, -5.913733
In November 2000 and January 2001 test-trenching took place as part of the mitigation of the redevelopment of the old Sirocco Works site on the Short Strand in Belfast. While the archaeological mitigation of this site is still in progress, the programme of test-trenching on the areas of the site to the west and east of the modern engine shed has been completed. It was hoped that the test-trenching would shed some light on the process of land reclamation from the Lagan in these areas and provide examples of glass from the old glassworks that occupied another part of the site. This was of particular significance in view of the recent upsurge of interest in post-medieval archaeology.
The first two test-trenches showed some signs of the process of reclaiming the land from the Lagan in this area, with the first trench in particular having alternate layers of riverine deposits and ‘made land’. However, the findings were in the main disappointing. It had been hoped that material from the glassworks would have found its way into the dump used to build up the ground here, but this was not the case. The second trench contained the remains of a relatively recent brick road or pavement surface. The third test-trench was less revealing, although it did help to confirm that the reclamation of land in this area was not done in any planned or organised manner. All the finds of pottery and glass were of late 19th- or 20th-century date.
Unit 6, Farset Enterprise Park, 638 Springfield Road, Belfast
