County: Antrim Site name: BELFAST: Hill Street, Belfast
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/03/47
Author: Cia McConway, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 734022m, N 874595m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.601828, -5.925666
Excavations to facilitate an electricity substation at Hill Street in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter uncovered a series of waterlogged clays and redeposited subsoil. Cutting through these clays were a linear gully, a wooden barrel and a wood-lined pit, both of which contained organic-rich material. These were sealed by a substantial depth of dark-brown soils, from which a large quantity of saggarts and pottery dating to the 17th and 18th centuries was recovered. A stone and mortar-bonded wall cut through these soils and is presumably part of the foundations of the earliest building that once fronted this part of Hill Street. This wall was overlain by a regular cobbled surface, which appears to have been the continuation of one previously uncovered by Eoin Halpin during the monitoring of the Cotton Court building (Excavations 2001, No. 8, AE/01/77) and ran east–west along the gable wall of the current DoE:EHS building. The nature of these cobbles would suggest a date of no earlier than the 19th century.
Despite the recovery of numerous saggarts, there was no physical evidence for the remains of the still unlocated Belfast kiln. However, the quantity of saggarts would suggest that the kiln must lie within the immediate vicinity of the site.
Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ
