County: Antrim Site name: Torr Road, Ballycastle
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/09/167
Author: Johanna Vuolteenaho and Vincent McClorey, ADS Ltd, Unit 6, 21 Old Channel Road, Belfast, BT3 9DE.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 722694m, N 940050m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.192463, -6.073016
The proposed development is located at Torr Road, close to Torr Head on the north-east coast of County Antrim. No. 72 Torr Road was still extant at the time of testing and in use as a builder’s store. Historic cartographic evidence, on the first-edition OS map sheet (1833), suggested that a dwelling has existed on the site since the early 19th century. As this property would be removed under the proposed development, it was recommended that a photographic building survey be carried out prior to demolition. However, examination of the buildings during the photographic survey revealed that the cottage and outbuilding are more likely to be a later structure, dating to between 1834 and 1859.
Although there are no recorded archaeological sites within the boundaries of the proposed development, eight sites are recorded within a 1km radius. The closest of these to the proposed development is a possible souterrain (ANT010–024), which has been approximately located in a field 50m to the north-east. The site was tested in January 2010 via monitoring of topsoil-stripping, which was carried out within the open ground of the proposed development
The site slopes gently downhill from Torr Road, which bounds the site to the north-east and south, and the monitoring revealed bedrock just below present ground level at the higher ground adjacent to the road. Topsoil depth increased downslope, varying between 0.44m towards the north-east and 0.85m to the south-west. Nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered during monitoring of topsoil-stripping.
