County: Antrim Site name: CARRICKFERGUS
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/05/149
Author: Simon Large, Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 741211m, N 887583m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.716476, -5.808223
Monitoring of a foundation trench was undertaken ahead of redevelopment within the existing De’Courcy Centre, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim. The 0.6m-wide trench began 13m south of the 17th-century north bastion wall and extended c. 24m. The southern end of the trench cut through a substantial ditch aligned north-east/south-west, which contained an organically rich fill cut directly into red clay. The line of the ditch paralleled the 17th-century north bastion wall. This was believed to be the ditch referred to on the 1567 Carrickfergus map as ‘An old trench’, possibly associated with a cornmill dated 1334. A sherd of gravel-tempered unglazed pottery, a cattle bone and two worked pieces of flint were recovered from the ditch fill. The northern end of the ditch exposed a dynamic stratigraphy, indicative of several earlier disturbances. There were a number of finds: a 17th-century brownware rim sherd, an unglazed floor tile, a piece of dressed stone, several brick pieces and late 19th/early 20th-century glazed pottery. No further excavation was possible.
638 Springfield Road, Belfast, BT12 7DY
