2007:48 - Goodland, Antrim

Introduction
Limited research excavations were carried out on 19–25 April 2007 at House 27 in Goodland townland, ANT009–043. The research excavation tested the theory that the c. 129 earthen huts visible in Goodland, Torglass, Knockbrack and Tornaroon townlands may correspond to a 16th- or early 17th-century Scottish Highland occupation associated with land grants made by the Earls of Antrim to their followers from Islay.
Background
Goodland consists of c. 129 post-medieval earthen houses and field systems atop a Neolithic occupation on a cliff above Murlough Bay in Co. Antrim, twelve miles by sea from the Mull of Kintyre. The site covers four townlands and is scheduled because of its extensive Neolithic and scattered Bronze Age deposits, in addition to the visible structures. The houses have been interpreted as temporary post-medieval booley-huts, representing the isolated continuity of medieval Gaelic seasonal transhumance and, by extension, the partial failure of English efforts to regularise land use, ownership and tenure beginning in the 17th century.
On the basis of local folklore and finds of bog butter, cultural geographer and folk life scholar Emyr Estyn-Evans (1945) proposed Goodland as a post-medieval booleying settlement, a refrain repeated by later scholars (O’Keeffe 2000; Williams and Robinson 1983). Excavations by Jean Graham (née Sidebotham) in 1949 and 1950 and by Humphrey Case in 1952 and 1953 unearthed evidence for extensive Neolithic use of the cliff top, but demonstrated that the huts were post-medieval. In addition to everted-rim ware, artefacts recovered from these excavations include white ball clay tobacco-pipe stems, a 16th-century silver brooch, a bronze ring, a glass bead and ceramics described by Graham (1954) as ‘plain glazed wares of the 17th century’ (Case 1953, 1969; Case et al. 1969; Graham 1954; Sidebotham 1950). The post-medieval materials were never turned over to the Ulster Museum (except a single sherd of everted-rim ware) and have been unavailable for analysis. Re-evaluation of the site, combining a digital landscape survey and targeted excavation with documentary and comparative research, raised the possibility that the site is a late 16th- and early-17th-century plantation settlement (Horning 2004; Horning and Brannon 2004).
2003 digital survey
Electronic survey of the houses and landscape features at Goodland was accomplished in the summer of 2003, coupled with detailed plan drawing of six structures and documentary research. The huts range from oval to subrectangular. Of those surveyed, 52 consist of a single room, fourteen contain two rooms (or a single internal division), four incorporate three rooms or divisions and one possesses four discrete rooms; 65 structures exhibit evidence for opposing doorways. Dimensions range from 4 to 13m in length and 4 to 6m in width. The smallest structure, House 13, is only 11m2 in area, while the largest, House 55, is 113m2. No huts overlie others and deterioration is uniform across the site.
2007 excavation
Excavations concentrated upon one structure that had been damaged by farm vehicles. House 27 measures 5m by 12m, with opposing doorways and no surface evidence for any annexe. Excavation proceeded in 1m2 units, orientated in relation to the structure to maximise the data retrieval and minimise damage to the building. Excavation of 9m2 within and across the banks of House 27 clarified the constructional details and unearthed evidence for a central hearth. The house was built of sods with the occasional layer of loose gravel, while the entrance to the house on the north-eastern axis was lined with large stones. Artefacts recovered included three sherds of Neolithic pottery and lithic debitage (principally secondary thinning flakes of Antrim flint), plusonebasal sherds of a hand-built coarse earthenware vessel of medieval or early post-medieval date. Stratigraphic excavation employed single context planning, and all soils were dry sieved. No intact earlier (pre-house) stratigraphic deposits were encountered. Soil and charcoal samples were retained from the soils associated with a hearth and await analysis. The trenches were backfilled, sods were replaced and the walls that had been previously damaged by tractor ruts were repaired employing soil and sods.
References
Case, H.J. 1969 Settlement patterns in the north Irish Neolithic. Ulster Journal of Archaeology 32, 3–27.
Case, H.J. 1973 A ritual site in north-east Ireland. In G. Daniel and P. Kjærum (eds), Megalithic graves and ritual. Jutland Archaeological Society Publications.
Case, H.J., Dimbleby, G.W., Mitchell, G.F., Mitchell, M.E.S. and Proudfoot, V.B. 1969 Land use in Goodland townland, Co. Antrim, from Neolithic times until today. Journal of the Royal Society of Irish Antiquaries 99, 39–53.
Evans, E.E. 1945 Field archaeology in the Ballycastle district. Ulster Journal of Archaeology 8, 14–32.
Graham, J.M. 1954 Transhumance in Ireland. Unpublished PhD thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast, Department of Geography.
Horning, A. 2004 Archaeological explorations of cultural identity and rural economy in the north of Ireland: Goodland, Co. Antrim. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 8(3), 199–215.
Horning, A. and Brannon, N. 2004 Rediscovering Goodland: Neolithic settlement, booley site, or lost Scottish village? Archaeology Ireland 18(3), 28–31.
O’Keeffe, T. 2000 Medieval Ireland: an archaeology. Stroud.
Sidebotham, J.M. 1950 A settlement in Goodland townland, Co. Antrim. Ulster Journal of Archaeology 13, 44–53.
Williams, B. and Robinson, P. 1983 Bronze Age cists and a medieval booley hut at Glenmakeeran, County Antrim, and a discussion of booleying in North Antrim. Ulster Journal of Archaeology 46, 29–40.