County: Down Site name: MAHEE ISLAND
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 17:5 Licence number: —
Author: Norman Crothers, Archaeological Excavation Unit, EHS, , and Tom McErlean, Centre for Maritime Archaeology
Site type: Tide mill - horizontal wheeled
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 752538m, N 863758m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.499285, -5.644953
A second season of work was carried out at the Early Christian tide mill, adjacent to the Nendrum monastic complex, to clarify the techniques used for and relationships between the three phases of construction on the site, dating from the early 7th to late 8th centuries.
Three trenches, Trenches 4–6, were opened. Trench 4, started the previous year at the rear of the wheelhouse (Excavations 1999, 47–8), was extended on the seaward side by 4m x 3m to establish the sequence of deposition and walling relating to the various phases. It became clear that the outermost post-and-plank wall belonging to Phase 1, originally assumed to have been forced outward by the pressure of the organic element of the bank, was in situ, having been constructed at that angle. The associated wattle walling had largely been eroded by the tides. The organic material occupied a trench, 3.2m wide and 1.5m deep, with another wattle wall flanking its inner side, being sandwiched between the outer organic and inner clay sections of the bank.
Trench 5, 2m wide, stretched for 20m across the mill banks out into the lough to examine the construction methods and structural elements used in each of the banks. Though the timber elements of Phase 1 were present, the red clay bank was not, being replaced by substantial boulders set within a clay-lined trench 4.4m wide and 1.24m deep. The stone and clay bank of Phase 2 had been incorporated into the base of the higher, Phase 3 bank, except where the former had been robbed out to accommodate the Phase 3 wheelhouse.
Trench 6, 7.5m x 3m, was opened up towards the outflow end of the Phase 3 wheelhouse to determine if any remains survived from the equivalent Phase 1 structure. When partial remains were uncovered, they were found to be adjacent to a platform constructed of large squared and roundwood timbers, the full extent of which could not be ascertained at the time.
A further trench was attempted at one of the breaks in the Phase 1 bank to determine whether it was a deliberately constructed inlet to the millpond or the product of erosion. Though the timber and boulder elements of the bank were uncovered, the hazardous conditions frustrated efforts to clear the break.
5–33 Hill Street, Belfast BT1 2LA and University of Ulster, Coleraine
