County: Derry Site name: PORTSTWEART: Agherton Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/02/131
Author: Stephen J. Linnane, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Structure and Enclosure
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 682334m, N 936542m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.169321, -6.707692
In the course of monitoring topsoil-stripping in advance of a residential development, a series of features were identified and excavated. The features comprised two roundhouses, both surviving as a series of ditch sections and post-holes and both appearing to have had two phases of occupation. Structure A was oval, with dimensions of c. 9m by c. 7m, whilst Structure D was c. 6.5m in diameter. Two boundary ditches were associated with the houses. Attached to one of these was a D-shaped enclosure (Structure C).
A further feature comprised a circular complex of post-holes and ditch segments (Structure B). The post-holes formed a circle with a diameter of c. 8.5m, whilst the external ditch segments formed a circle with a diameter of c. 11m. The structure had a complex sequence of entrance arrangements, including metalled surfaces (indicating that the structure had not been significantly truncated). The complex and purposeful arrangement of features within this structure suggests that it may have been more than a house, possibly a small wooden henge monument.
Situated c. 50m to the south of this complex was a cremation pit containing the bones of a single child aged between six and twelve years. Pottery and flint collections await analysis, likewise radiocarbon dating. The whole complex appears to date to the Late Bronze Age.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
