County: Antrim Site name: BELFAST: Castle Street/King Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 61:17 Licence number: AE/02/04
Author: Ciara MacManus, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Building
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 733422m, N 874296m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.599294, -5.935080
Monitoring of pile-trenches was carried out over seven weeks at a proposed apartment development at Castle Street/King Street, Belfast. This work confirmed the existence of the tannery (AR 10076) and a probable mill that may relate to the flour mill (AR 10078), noted in both the industrial record of the SMR and the various editions of the OS 6-inch maps. The tannery appears to encompass the southern, eastern and north-eastern parts of the proposed development site, as evidenced by the discovery of numerous tanning boxes and related superstructures in these areas. The mill, which appears to be a later addition to the site, seems to be situated off-centre to the proposed development toward the north. Evidence of this structure was uncovered in the form of concrete basement compartments, the remains of large wooden piles and associated foundation levels, and what appear to be metal mill-race ‘boxes’ and run-off channels.
Also noted during monitoring was what appears to be a ‘fill’ layer across the site consisting of a dark horizon filled with animal bone and pottery sherds that date from the 17th to the 20th century. This layer, which appears to be only 0.2m thick in the northern end of the site but reaches up to 1m thick in the southern end, has been interpreted as a deliberate deposit of fill in order to level the otherwise naturally sloping topography of the site before development of the tannery and mill.
Monitoring and subsequent manual excavation have been carried out over extensive tracts of the site. It is estimated that 50–60% of the site will have been extensively tested and excavated by the end of the present phase of works. So far the results have confirmed the presence of two of the buildings already known to have existed on this site through cartographic evidence.
Excavation of the archaeological ‘fill’ layer across the site has proved this to be post-medieval, no earlier than the 17th century, and in all cases associated with the later industrial development of the site. No archaeological features have been identified beneath this layer, and no evidence has been found for any activity other than that already known to have existed.
Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ
