County: Antrim Site name: LISBURN: Hillsborough Road/Smithfield Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/06/241
Author: Peter Bowen, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 726502m, N 864138m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.509857, -6.046474
Trial-trenching was undertaken at the site of a new Translink bus station located on waste ground at the junction of Hillsborough Road and Smithfield Street, Lisburn. There were no known archaeological sites within the confines of the development and a study of cartographic material suggested that the site had remained undeveloped until the early 20th century. Six trenches were mechanically excavated across the site to subsoil, located at a depth of up to 3m below the current ground surface. Directly above the subsoil lay a 0.4m-thick layer of dark-brown loam, the original topsoil and ground level of the site. This had been covered by the deliberate dumping of refuse material and building rubble during the mid-19th century, which had raised the site to the current level. There were no archaeological deposits uncovered within the trial-trenches and the site appears to have been undeveloped until the 20th century, when a warehouse (now demolished) was built.
Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast, BT12 5BJ
