2006:551 - PORTAFERRY CASTLE, Down

A comprehensive programme of archaeological monitoring and limited excavation was undertaken on the site of a proposed new Coastal Science Centre for Queen’s University, Belfast. The development site formerly comprised a portion of the grounds of Portaferry Castle, which is a tower-house of probable 16th-century date that today stands immediately to the east of the proposed development. The footprint of the proposed Coastal Science Centre occupied the backyards of two houses dating to the 19th century, Nos 11 and 12 The Strand, Portaferry. The backyard areas have more recently been used in conjunction with the Queen’s University Marine Biology Centre, which has been based at No. 12 since 1945. A Teaching Centre associated with the university facility currently stands in the garden of No. 11. The archaeological element of the Portaferry development commenced in 2005 but carried on into early 2006. The deposits and features recorded can be divided into three broad phases: (i) pre-19th century, (ii) 18th to early 20th century and (iii) modern.

Pre-19th century
Towards the centre of the development site and concealed in a hollow on a broad shelf of shale bedrock was an amorphous spread of compact black clay loam. The spread had a maximum width of 1.8m and depth of 0.2m. The deposit was sterile of artefacts apart from a single worked flint blade and a cache of periwinkle and limpet shells. The deposit was interpreted as the remains of a shell midden. Shell middens are relatively commonplace around the shores of Strangford Lough and, based on the technology implied by the blade, the deposit was probably of Neolithic date.

The second, probably pre-19th-century, feature was visible only along the south-west-facing section edge of the site footprint. A layer of rubble and mortar stretched for a distance of 8.5m from the eastern edge of the excavated area. At the foot of this deposit was a mortared-together setting of three red bricks. Because this deposit did not extend further south into the excavated area, it was not conclusively interpreted and no diagnostic cultural material was obtained from it. However, the morphology of the bricks and their extant condition was suggestive of a possible 17th-century date, potentially placing the feature in the era of use of the tower-house.

1800s to early 20th century
The majority of the material unearthed post-dated the building of the dwelling houses and the deposits tended to be exclusive to one or other of the two backyards. Cartographic evidence confirms that both houses were built between 1799 and 1850, while a date stone in the boundary wall between the properties, which was demolished as part of the development, bore the inscription ‘1835’.

In the backyard of No. 11, a deposit of shale chippings had been laid down over two ridges of natural bedrock on either side of the yard to form a level ground surface. This landscaping activity was presumably carried out in the course of the partitioning of the castle grounds to create the domestic plots and was responsible for the truncation of all earlier deposits in the yard, with the exception of the features detailed in the first section of this entry. Successive soil deposits overlay the shale chippings, probably representing different episodes of gardening activity or cultivation in the garden. A variety of potsherds, including fragments of red earthenware, creamware and North Devon slipware, were found in these deposits and were consistent with an 18th- or 19th-century date. The remnants of a red-brick pathway were unearthed towards the north-west of the garden. The constituent bricks were of probable 19th-century date and the pathway extended for c. 5m on an approximately south-east/north-west alignment before being truncated by a later gully. A probably related line of similar red brick survived on a parallel axis at the opposite south-eastern edge of the garden, although it extended for only 1.5m and survived as a single course of bricks. Both of these red-brick features were sealed by a modern deposit of humified grey/black loam which contained fragments of modern transfer-printed ware pottery.

In No. 12, the earliest deposit overlying the subsoil was a light-brown sandy loam garden soil, cut into which were two linear gullies aligned north-west/south-east, which were probably hedgerows. A deep deposit of dark-black clay loam, which was probably a relict of a subsequent phase of gardening activity, sealed these features, although the dark-black clay loam deposit had been badly disturbed by the sinking of two landfill pits through the soil. Both of the probable garden deposits excavated in the yard of No. 12 contained a quantity of creamware and red earthenware fragments, which were again indicative of an 18th- or 19th-century date. The earlier of the garden deposits excavated in No. 12 also yielded a perforated stone artefact, which displayed roughly etched lines radiating from the perforation. The dating of the object is uncertain and it is likely to have been residually deposited in the matrix of the garden material. It has been provisionally interpreted as a rudimentary handheld sundial.

Modern
The most recent strata encountered was related to the use of the two backyard areas by Queen’s University, Belfast. These included seawater tanks and service pipes that had been set on to a modern surface of hardstanding and concrete. A concrete path had been laid around the existing Teaching Centre.

School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT7 1NN