2006:483 - BANBRIDGE: Edenderry Road, Down

Following on from testing by Joseph Kovacik (Excavations 2005, No. 354), excavations were carried out in December 2005 and January 2006 on a development site located on the Edenderry Road, on the western outskirts of Banbridge and within the grounds of Banbridge hospital.

In the north-east corner of the site an annular oval U-shaped ring-ditch, measuring c. 3.92m east–west by 3.32m, 0.34m deep and between 0.23–0.61m wide, was excavated. The upper fill contained burnt bone, sherds of coarseware pottery and medium to large sub-angular burnt stones. The secondary fill contained a moderate amount of large and medium-sized sub-angular burnt stones, sherds of coarseware pottery, burnt bone and flints, including a burnt hollow scraper. The basal fill included one piece of flint debitage. Inside the ring-ditch was a shallow subcircular pit measuring 0.16m north–south by 0.23m and 0.05m deep. Burnt bone, sherds of coarseware pottery, flint debitage and quartz pebbles were recovered from the pit. The presence of coarseware pottery and a hollow scraper within the fills of the ring-ditch confirms a prehistoric date. The burnt bone and charcoal within the ditch fills and in a slight depression within the ring-ditch suggest ceremonial activity, perhaps token deposition of cremated human remains. The evidence of the ditch fills suggests an absence of natural silting after initial digging of the ditch. Rather it would seem that, soon or immediately after the ditch was excavated, it was deliberately filled with deposits containing burnt bone, charcoal, pottery and burnt flints as part of the ceremonial construction of the monument.

Excavations at the south-east corner of the site revealed the remains of three interconnected features representing three phases of activity. The earliest and main feature of interest was a subrectangular grave pit. As it survived, the pit measured 2.2m east–west by 2.1m and 0.71m in depth. The grave pit was truncated on the south by an east–west-running trench and did not extend beyond this to the south. The pit had almost vertically cut sides and a flat regular base and was cut into undisturbed natural clay. Excavation revealed the remains of eight skeletons in varying degrees of poor preservation, representing a juvenile, an infant and six adults. All were found in a supine extended position with arms by their side and aligned east–west with heads at the west. Iron coffin nails were present around the skeletons within the main fill, and at the base waterlogged conditions preserved remnants of three wooden coffins. The finds were of 19th-century date and included glass, ceramics, coal, roof slate and red-brick fragments. A deep linear trench running east–west cut the grave pit at the southern end of the site and was itself cut by a wall foundation on the west.

The presence of the burials within the grounds of Banbridge hospital points to a connection with the old Union workhouse, possibly the unfortunate result of an epidemic/infectious disease.

Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast, BT12 5BJ