County: Down Site name: BRACKENAGH EAST
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 56:29 Licence number: AE/01/22
Author: Stephen Gilmore, Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.
Site type: Ringfort - cashel
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 733402m, N 819007m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.102832, -5.960141
Monitoring took place here as a house was to be constructed to the south of an AP site, SMR 56:29, which appeared to be a section of a rath still surviving in the next field. Upon topsoil-stripping the other portion was uncovered. Two sections were cut across the ditch. The house foundations were required to be rafted. The ditch fill contained a large proportion of granite boulders, which suggested that the rath had been a stone-built cashel rather than an earthen ringfort. Radiocarbon dates for the site are pending.
Unit 6, Farset Enterprise Park, 638 Springfield Road, Belfast
