2002:0020 - CUSHENDUN: Castle Carra, Antrim

This ruined masonry structure was just north of the village of Cushendun. It measured 6m by 3.3m internally and 9m by 6.8m externally at the base batter and was oriented north-west/south-east; it was situated at 10m above sea level and 100m from the shore on a ridge of green schist. A brief investigation of the site in 1995 indicated a 13th–14th-century date for the structure, based on an analysis of the pottery. There was a doorway in the north-west corner, halfway between the ground and first floors (Excavations 1995, No. 3). It appeared to have been built on a Mesolithic site, and it was used in post-medieval times as a cillín (children’s burial-ground).

The completion of the excavation of the interior and areas immediately around the structure revealed that it had been constructed in the early 14th century. The craggy outcrop on which it was erected had been levelled using boulders and gravel, and a clay floor was laid within the structure but, apparently, not completed. There was little evidence of occupation at that level, although it was subsequently put to industrial use, as indicated by the remains of a crude furnace, pieces of slag and several layers of charcoal and burnt soil. Further quantities of glazed and unglazed medieval pottery were recovered from those accumulations. More infant burials were found in the later deposits; they were all in the southern part of the structure, that is, furthest from the doorway, and all had died at or within a few weeks of birth.

An external trench on the south-west side of the structure uncovered a similar pattern of medieval levelling, in the surface of which were three post-holes, 0.3–0.4m in diameter and 0.15–0.25m deep, possibly for supporting a stairway to the mid-level entrance. A silver coin of Edward I from the same surface seemed to confirm an early 14th-century date for construction.

Beneath the medieval levelling deposits in this trench, and in another to the north-west of the structure, were substantial deposits of charcoal-rich soil, up to 0.35m thick, containing numerous crude flint scrapers and blades, quantities of debitage and a stone adze. All of these artefacts indicated a Late Mesolithic date for the activity.

Edward Bruce laid claim to these lands from the Bissets, whom he had defeated in battle. If the Bissets had begun construction of Castle Carra, even if disturbed by Bruce’s troops, there was little reason not to finish it once the danger had gone. If, however, it was Bruce who ordered its erection, possibly as a depot or lookout point, his defeat and death would have made its completion unnecessary, and the Bissets may then have snubbed the structure, leaving it to be used by ironworkers.

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