County: Down Site name: Tullykevin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/08/128
Author: Brian Sloan, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT7 1NN.
Site type: Early Christian
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 759837m, N 869766m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.550978, -5.529129
A phased archaeological investigation was carried out at 74 Dunover Road, Tullykevin, Ballywalter, Co. Down, in response to a planning application for a replacement dwelling. The proposed location of the house lies c. 20m south of a well-preserved platform rath (DOW012–005).
Phase 1 of the works involved the mechanical excavation of three test-trenches across the proposed location of the house. These varied in length from 15m to 18m, with Trenches 1 and 2 aligned roughly east–west and Trench 3 aligned roughly north–south. Each trench was excavated to the surface of the natural subsoil. A linear feature cutting the subsoil was encountered in Trenches 1 and 2. A small cutting excavated across this feature produced numerous sherds of souterrain ware pottery, and although this cutting was not fully excavated, the feature was proven to have archaeological potential.
Phase 2 involved the mechanical topsoil-stripping of the development footprint to allow the full exposure and excavation of the feature encountered during the Phase 1 evaluation. On stripping the topsoil, the truncated remains of two ditches were exposed. The larger of the features was a curvilinear ditch roughly aligned north–south through the middle of the development footprint. This feature was not encountered during the original evaluation. Excavation of this feature showed that it had been backfilled relatively quickly rather than being allowed to silt up naturally. This is augmented by a lack of organic remains from the base of the feature. Finds from the various fills of the feature include iron slag and numerous sherds of souterrain ware pottery. This feature was cut by a linear ditch (the feature originally encountered during the Phase 1 evaluation). It is assumed that both ditches were open and in use, as well as being backfilled at the same time.
The excavation at Tullykevin proved the existence of archaeological features outside of the rath. It is hoped that a series of radiocarbon dates from the fills of the ditches will further our understanding on the date and function of these features, as well as their relationship to the rath. Post-excavation work is currently ongoing for this site.
