2009:052 - MONEYNICK, Antrim

The Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork was asked by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency to investigate a souterrain discovered at Moneynick, Toome, Co. Antrim. The souterrain, uncovered during the construction of a private house by the landowner, was largely destroyed by the construction work, its nature not being recognised until excavation around it was very advanced. A section of a single passage, possibly the entrance passage, remained. A portion of the surviving souterrain was excavated. Because of concerns over health and safety, excavation was conducted with the assistance of a mechanical excavator. The souterrain was in an extremely unstable condition and as soon as the lintels were removed it began to collapse; nevertheless it was possible to see some constructional details and get an idea of the height and width of the souterrain passage. Because of the imminent danger of collapse, these details were recorded photographically.
A short, less than 3m-long, section of souterrain passage was excavated running north-west/southeast. The passage continued beyond the area of excavations running south-west into the adjacent property. The souterrain passage was c. 1.3m deep from the base of the lintels to its floor and varied between 0.75m and 1m wide. The walls were composed of quite well-sorted sub-angular basaltic blocks with vertical, horizontal and depth dimensions of about 0.2m. The lintels were larger, more elongated, both flattened and rounded. The passage was not level but sloped downwards, from the higher ground south-east to the north-west. It was difficult to estimate the slope but 15–20?˚ is probably a reasonable approximation. The souterrain was both cut into gravelly subsoil and, at its base, into bedrock. The floor was smooth bedrock. Because of the slope of the passage and its smooth bedrock floor, there was little evidence for archaeological strata at the base of the souterrain, probably because of the washing effect of water running along the passage. No archaeological artefacts were discovered.
The landowner who first uncovered the souterrain had given a description of the portion of the structure which had been destroyed by groundworks at the site, indicating a passage joining at right angles, making a T-junction with the surviving passage and running for several metres either side of it. The landowner indicated that access between the destroyed passage and the passage now exposed had been controlled by a creep.