County: Antrim Site name: Antrim Bastion Wall, Antrim
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/08/204
Author: Peter Bowen, for Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT7 1NN.
Site type: Medieval/post-medieval?
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 714567m, N 886743m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.715704, -6.221859
Following the collapse of a 12m-section of the 17th-century bastion wall (ANT050–183) on 11 October 2008, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency requested an archaeological evaluation as part of the repair and consolidation work to be undertaken by Antrim Borough Council. The site is located at the northern end of Market Square within the scheduled area of the bastion wall. It measures approximately 45m north–south by 18m. The remedial work to be undertaken will initially involve making the site safe from further immediate collapse. This will be followed by a programme of consolidation and reconstruction of the bastion wall.
The collapsed section of the bastion wall measures 12m in length north–south, although it is likely that further sections will have to be removed, both for health and safety reasons and to enable reconstruction. This may involve the removal of the wall to foundation level with new, deeper foundations built.
Lying against the western side of the wall is an earthen rampart with a concrete walkway surface, part of which has also collapsed. This rampart, the bulk of which is likely to be post-medieval or later in origin, will also need to be at least partially removed to alleviate the stress on the remaining standing portion of the wall.
At the time of writing (January 2009) the wall has been removed to ground level, with a substantial portion of the rampart also removed. It is proposed to investigate the foundations of the wall by means of a series of hand-dug test-trenches. This work has only commenced and results are not yet available.
