County: Antrim Site name: CARRICKFERGUS: Lancasterian Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/02/124
Author: Stephen Gilmore, Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 741311m, N 887513m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.715819, -5.806706
The development site in the centre of Carrickfergus, in the historic core of the town, was an irregular area roughly measuring a maximum of c. 35m north-west/south-east by c. 35m. Prior to investigation the site consisted of tarmacked car-parking areas. A system of piles and ground-beams was chosen for the foundations.
Monitoring took place of removal of a layer of hardcore which varied in thickness from 0.5 to over 1m and of excavation of the area of the pile capes for the proposed building. There were 22 of these areas and they were up to 3m square. Of the 22 original locations, nine were either destroyed below the level of the subsoil, polluted by oil or unable to be excavated due to a live electrical cable and waterlogging.
Part of the site had been excavated in the early 1990s by Ruairí Ó Baoill, who uncovered medieval property boundaries and deposits up to 1m in thickness. Due to the keyhole nature of our excavation, it was difficult to distinguish what was found, but linear ditches similar in nature to property boundaries were uncovered, along with over 1000 sherds of medieval and post-medieval pottery. The medieval deposits were no greater than 0.5m in thickness but post-medieval layers had survived. These were up to 0.5m in thickness. There was no evidence for structures or buildings.
Farset Enterprise Park, 638 Springfield Road, Belfast, BT12 7DY
