2006:31 - BELFAST: Barnett’s Demesne, Antrim

An archaeological evaluation was required in advance of development of an enclosed garden adjacent to Barnett’s Stableyard, Barnett’s Demesne, Belfast, as a former 17th-century demesne house was thought to be located in the immediate vicinity. Topsoil monitoring uncovered three rubble wall foundations and the lower four courses of a returning red-brick wall, all located in the north-west corner of the site and extending beyond the limits of the development. These features lay beneath made ground consisting of black silty clay and modern debris, the latter comprised mainly of glass bottle but also broken pottery, metal objects and brick. This was in turn overlain by garden soil.

The results of excavation here suggests that one of the rubble foundations is the rear south-east corner of the 17th-century house and the returning red-brick wall to define a rectangular structure to the rear of this house, probably an annexe. Unglazed floor tiles were located in situ within the structure. Two cobbled surfaces and a linear arrangement of paving slabs adjacent to the two remaining rubble foundations suggest that these may represent the remains of garden features associated with the former house. Cartographic evidence from the first- to third-edition OS maps would appear to concur with this interpretation. The fourth-edition OS map indicates that some of these walls were still extant in 1938.

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