County: Down Site name: LOUGHADIAN (1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/06/48
Author: Norman Crothers, for ADS Ltd.
Site type: House - Bronze Age
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 706988m, N 839957m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.297167, -6.356379
This site consisted of the truncated remains of a Bronze Age house and associated features. The remains of the house consisted of two arcs of a ring gully, three post-holes and a pit and stake-hole complex. The south gully arc, which measured 7.16m long by 0.46–0.6m wide with an average depth of 0.17m, generally had a U-shaped profile but with a flat base in places. The gully emerged from the east limit of the working width and curved gently through west to north, where there was a clearly defined rounded terminal. It had a fill of friable mid-grey clayey silt with occasional charcoal, which in places lay above a light-brown sand. The north side of the gully had been severely ploughed out at its north-east end and survived as a 2.6m-long arc with a maximum depth of 0.14m and filled with mid-grey clayey silt. It had a clearly defined rounded terminal at its south end. The gully would have had an internal diameter of c. 8.5m and the gap between the terminals of the two arcs was probably the entrance. An arc of three internal post-holes, two to the south and one to the north of the entrance, may have held the posts of a ring-beam to support the roof. The southernmost post-hole had been cut by a small post-hole at its north-west edge and by a second on its south-west edge.
A complex consisting of a shallow pit and a group of stake-holes was situated just south of the approximate centre of the house. The pit, which measured 0.38m north/south by 0.36m by 40mm deep, was filled with dark-brown clay silt. This feature was surrounded by seven stake-holes: one to the north-east, one to the north, two to the north-west, one to the west and two to the south-west. These where all very similar in size and shape and were filled with dark-grey or brown clayey silt. Four stake-holes lay 1.3m to the north of this complex, one 2.2m to the north-west and one 1.3m to the south, with a second 0.6m further south.
The only external feature that may have been associated with the house was a circular pit, which had a diameter of 0.4m and was 0.11m deep, immediately north of the projected line of the truncated gully. A severely truncated sub-oval pit, which measured 2.04m north–south by 1.13m by 0.15m deep, was situated some 150m to the north. It was filled with black clayey silt containing occasional medium-sized stones and with patches of charcoal-rich soil on the surface.
Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast, BT12 5BJ
