2006:57 - RATHLIN ISLAND: St Thomas’s Church, Church Quarter, Antrim

An archaeological evaluation was carried out at an area of land owned by the National Trust, which lies immediately north of the boundary of St Thomas’s Church, Church Quarter, Rathlin Island. The work was undertaken to investigate the archaeological potential of the site ahead of a proposed graveyard extension project. The area is included in the Sites and Monuments Record, as tradition states that the present church, St Thomas’s, is located on the site of an earlier church, reputedly founded by St Comgall of Bangor in the late 6th or early 7th century (e.g. O’Laverty 1887, 374; Law 1962, 27; Hamlin 1976, 458). Four other locations, however, have also been proposed for the site of the early church, including Kilvoruan in Carravindoon townland and Kilbride in Knockans townland (Hamlin 1976, 458). In 2003 a number of human skulls and other human bone remains were uncovered within the present church during renovation work and it has been suggested that they may have originated from the earlier church, being deposited within the present church when it was constructed in the 18th century (Hurl 2003).

Five small trenches were opened (three measuring 2m by 1m and two at 1m by 1m), to test for archaeological remains. The evaluation uncovered remains of successive events of slippage and tumble from the cliffs which rise to the north and east side of the site. The slumping and stone tumble deposits in many cases contained what appeared to be midden material of shell and animal bone, coarse pot of Bronze Age and Early Christian date and struck flint and porcellanite. A hearth and midden pit were the only features encountered and were concentrated in the south-west of the area under investigation (in Trench 2). The hearth deposit, visible as lenses of orange, orange/red and black sandy clay, measured 0.3m by 0.28m and 0.1m thick. Finds recovered from the hearth included a sherd of lead-glazed pottery, providing a possible date in the medieval period for the feature.

The midden pit extended into the trench from the south, 1–1.4m, and extended beyond the limits of the trench at the east, south and west. The dark-brown sticky clay loam fill contained large quantities of animal bone and shell. Souterrain ware pottery was also recovered, as was an articulated skeleton which has been identified as a dog (Dr E. Murray, pers. comm.). The associated souterrain ware gives the midden pit a probable Early Christian date.

No evidence to suggest that the area had been used for human burials was uncovered during the evaluation. The recovery of a midden with a likely date in the Early Christian period suggests that the site was in use, for some time at least, during the period that St Comgall’s Church was active on the island, between the 7th and 10th centuries (Hamlin 1976, 458).

References
Hamlin, A. 1976 The archaeology of Early Christianity in the north of Ireland. Unpublished PhD thesis, QUB.
Hurl, D. 2003 St Thomas’ Church of Ireland church, Rathlin Island. Unpublished file note held in the EHS SMR file.
Law, H.I. 1962 Rathlin Island and Parish, Cookstown.
O’Laverty, J. 1887 An historical account of the Diocese of Down and Connor, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 4. Dublin.

School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast