2009:001 - ANTRIM BASTION WALL, Antrim

Work that started with an initial evaluation at the site in 2008 (Excavations 2008, No. 2) carried on with a small-scale excavation in 2009. The excavation took the form of three test-trenches, each orientated to straddle the line of the bastion wall. Each trench was further subdivided into east and west, with the bastion wall acting as a boundary between each side of the trench. The trenches were numbered 1–3, starting at the northern end of the site.
Within the eastern portion of Trench 1 a probable ditch, medieval in date, was found to run below the wall. This was, in turn, sealed by several soil deposits and two surfaces, one of these metalled, the other cobbled. The bastion wall was then built directly over these cobbles. To the east of the wall (Market Square) was a clay soil deposit, on top of which was a stone plinth for the later reconstruction of the bastion wall, which appears to have collapsed. Over this the remaining deposits sealing the trench were found to be 19th to 20th century in date.
To the west of the bastion wall, the remains of a possible bank were found, along with the apparent western edge of the medieval ditch, uncovered to the east. Over these were several soil deposits, and a continuation of both the metalled and cobbled surfaces. The cobbled layer, on which the wall was built, had been cut by a slot that extended beyond the limits of the trench. No relationship between the slot and the wall was evident. Over the cobbles and abutting the wall was a topsoil build-up that in turn was covered by the dumping of clayey soils to raise the ground level prior to the construction of the rampart. The rampart comprised redeposited subsoil layers and was cut by a foundation for the later rebuilt bastion wall. Then over the top of the rampart was lain a gravel pathway which was severely disturbed during the 19th century when the rampart was modified and raised in height.
In Trench 2, to the east of the bastion wall, was a probable continuation of the medieval ditch uncovered in Trench 1, possibly cutting earlier deposits. This was overlain by a series of soil deposits that ran below the foundation of the bastion wall. Two later pits were found cut into the deposits to the east of the wall which were sealed by 19th-to 20th¬century soils.
To the west of the wall was found a scarp that continued below the wall. No evidence for this was uncovered to the east of the bastion wall. This scarp produced a single sherd of 17th-century pottery. The original bastion wall was built over this infilled scarp, which was also covered with a possible buried topsoil layer. Above this was built the rampart with a cut along the eastern side of it being a foundation for the later rebuilt bastion wall. The gravel pathway in Trench 1 was found to continue into this trench but again had been disturbed by the 19th-century modifications to the wall and rampart.
Trench 3 was the southernmost trench on site and was positioned to investigate one of three small pinning walls found running off the bastion wall into the rampart when the modern overburden had been removed. The existence of these walls had not been known until this overburden was removed. The earliest feature uncovered in the trench was a probable 17th-century ditch found running north¬east/south-west on the eastern side of the bastion wall. This ditch was covered with a metalled surface onto which the bastion wall had been built. The remaining deposits sealing the trench were found to be 19th-to 20th-century topsoil layers.
To the west of the wall, once the rampart had been removed, it was found to be constructed upon a buried topsoil layer that in turn lay above presumed subsoil. A box section excavated into this subsoil did not uncover any archaeological deposits and no trace of the ditch to the east of the wall was found. The rampart here was the same as in the previous trenches, being formed from redeposited subsoil. No definitive evidence for a foundation cut for the replacement bastion wall was found, due to the presence of the remaining upstanding portion of the wall, although it was clear that there were two separate builds. The pinning wall was found to be built into the later bastion wall and was contemporary with it. The remains of a gravel pathway were found on top of the rampart. During the later 19th-century work this pinning wall was added to with an additional stretch of wall, the construction of which disturbed the gravel pathway. Above this were 19th-to 20th-century deposits.