County: Antrim Site name: Clare Park
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/10/136E
Author: David Kilner and Vincent McClorey, Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Unit 6, Channel Wharf, 21 Old Channel Road, Belfast, BT3 9DE.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 710767m, N 941912m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.211996, -6.259511
The site is located at Clare Park off Clare Road to the north-west of Ballycastle, Co. Antrim. The proposed development concerns the construction of a function room and conference suites and associated car-parking facilities and services associated with an adjacent hotel and holiday dwellings development that will be constructed under a separate planning application. It is proposed that the function room/conference suites will be joined to the hotel by an underground tunnel. These groundworks would have a negative impact upon any subsurface archaeological features.
The proposed development site lies within an archaeologically sensitive area with ten recorded sites within a 1km radius. Furthermore, the location of Clare Park House (HB 05/12/002) and the garden Clare Park (AN–108), both of which date to the 17th century, are located to the immediate west of the proposed development.
Four test-trenches were excavated across the proposed development. Two trenches were excavated across the footprint of the proposed car-parking facilities and two across the footprint of the function room/conference suites. No deposits of archaeological potential were uncovered.
