County: Derry Site name: MACOSQUIN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/02/130
Author: Norman Crothers, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound and Metalworking site
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 682521m, N 928828m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.100000, -6.707000
Monitoring of topsoil removal was undertaken at a private housing development situated at the south-west edge of Macosquin village some 5km south-south-west of Coleraine, Co. Londonderry. The development lies on low-lying ground beside the Macosquin River on the outskirts of Macosquin village that had been used as rough grazing prior to the commencement of site works. It is located immediately to the west of Clonsilla Drive and is bounded by Ringrash Road on the north and by the Macosquin River on the south. The northern half of the site was formerly occupied by a millpond which served a corn mill and a flax mill, both now removed and replaced by private housing. Nothing of archaeological significance was found within the area of the former millpond.
Immediately to the south, however, a substantial spread of charcoal-rich soil, the remains of a badly truncated burnt mound, was uncovered. Associated with this burnt spread were numerous post-holes/stake-holes, but there was no trace of an accompanying trough. Further subsoil-cut features were revealed within the southern half of the site which included evidence for metalworking in the form of shallow, bowl-shaped pits. The fill of all these pits contained a lot of charcoal and a substantial quantity of iron slag. A narrow natural water channel close to these pits may have been used as a quenching source for the metalworking. Finds from the site included flint scrapers, a few sherds of prehistoric pottery and some possible fragments of tuyére.
Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ
