County: Antrim Site name: Church Bay, Demesne, Rathlin Island
Sites and Monuments Record No.: ANT001–014 Licence number: AE/06/72
Author: Declan P. Hurl, Historic Monuments Unit, Environment and Heritage Service, Waterman House, 5–33 Hill Street, Belfast, BT1 2LA.
Site type: Bronze Age cist burial
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715061m, N 886524m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.713630, -6.214280
Excavations conducted behind Mc Cuaig’s bar, Church Bay, Rathlin Island, revealed two Bronze Age cist burials and a pit containing a mass of disarticulated human bones. The site lies c. 40m north of the location of an excavation undertaken in 1983–4 by a team led by Ken Wiggins, which uncovered six or seven disturbed cists containing the partial remains of ten individuals, half of whom were within one grave, as well as two Irish bowls, a pygmy cup and a bucket-shaped urn.
The site came to light in 2005, when the erosion of a 3m-high section cut into pebbly raised beach material revealed a number of limestone slabs. Further investigation proved these slabs to be the capstone and side lintels of a cist (Cist A), the top of which was 0.67m below the upper ground surface. An initial excavation, to investigate and rescue the contents of the cist, was undertaken in February 2006 by the writer, assisted by a team from the Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Ulster: Coleraine, headed by Colin Breen. The larger part of the cracked capstone, which was 0.7m wide, 0.2m thick and originally 1.3m long, was lifted and the contents revealed.
Within the cist, internally measuring 1.15m long and 0.6m wide and deep, was an adult skeleton, crouched on its left side, and an intact Early Bronze Age tripartite vase. Provisional analysis by Dr Eileen Murphy (QUB) found that the skeleton is a male of around 45 years of age and 1.85m tall. He was a sturdy individual, with degenerative joint disease in his shoulders, vertebrae, hips and knees.
Prior to the opening of the cist, a pit was observed above it, initially thought to represent the cut to accommodate the cist. Upon further examination, however, numerous pieces of fractured bones representing several individuals were found within the pit. A further excavation was carried out by Brian Sloan from the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork in the autumn of 2006 to investigate this apparent pit burial, and to expose and plan the cist (see No. 68 below.)
