County: Antrim Site name: AUGHNAMULLAN, Nutts Corner
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Cormac McSparron, NAC
Site type: House - early medieval
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 719975m, N 876885m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.625919, -6.142006
Monitoring of topsoil-stripping took place at a development site at Aughnamullan, Nutts Corner, Co. Antrim, to comply with the planning conditions for erecting a distribution warehouse. The development area had been part of a World War II military airfield. Before the war, an aerial photograph taken in 1927 by the RAF had revealed four concentric ditches c. 100m in diameter, probably of a multivallate rath.
Two areas of archaeology were uncovered. During topsoil-stripping a number of timbers were noted. The area around the timbers was cleaned manually to reveal six post-holes, four stone-packed, with surviving timbers. The approximate dimensions of the building are 6.4m x 3.5m. The ground level may have been significantly reduced in the past, possibly during the construction of the airport. The absence of any floor layer or any form of occupation deposits suggests that the upper levels of archaeology were probably truncated at this stage. Given the size of the surviving oak timbers, c. 0.4m in diameter, it seems reasonable to speculate that it was a substantial structure. Nearby, in a badly disturbed pit/gully, cordoned souterrain ware was found.
The scale of the original aerial photograph of the site is unclear, and the surrounding landscape has changed almost beyond recognition. However, there are a couple of reference points that allow the location of the uncovered archaeology to be tied in, approximately, to the four-ditch feature known from the aerial photograph. This suggests that the archaeology uncovered was just outside the outer ditch.
Unit 6, Farset Enterprise Park, 638 Springfield Road, Belfast
