2010:037 - Kells, Antrim

A watching brief was undertaken during the mechanical excavation of foundations for an extension to the rear of a semi-detached property at No. 17 Church Road in Kells. The property can be dated, on architectural grounds, to the late 19th or early 20th century and is located in the potentially archaeologically sensitive area between the two early ecclesiastical sites of Kells and Connor. Kells is generally accepted as being the site of an early monastic foundation despite a lack of early documentary evidence (Hamlin 2008, 446). During the Middle Ages it was known as the ‘Desert of Connor’ (e.g. the 1306 Papal Taxation cf. Reeves 1847, 95, fn.f) and was the site of an abbey of Augustinian canons (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 180–1). The only material remains of the Augustinian abbey is a ruined late medieval church known as Templemoyle (ANT 038–026) located approximately 440m to the west of the development site. The only known potentially early material culture that might be associated with a pre-12th-century ecclesiastical site at Kells is a bullaun stone (ANT 038–037) that was formerly set as a basal quoin of a now demolished cottage in Station Road and is now mortared into a detached wall of the ruined late medieval church of Templemoyle (ANT 038–026).
Despite a number of archaeological evaluations and investigations in Kells, no evidence for an Early Christian monastic centre has been identified, although, if it did exist, then it was most likely to have been located on the site occupied by the later Augustinian abbey (ANT 038–026) cf. Hamlin 2008, 390. The development site at No. 17 Church Road was also situated in the vicinity of a ‘jostle stone’ built into the corner of a building to protect it from damage caused by traffic (ANT 038–064). Although this latter feature is unlikely to be of any significant antiquity, it has been previously identified as a prehistoric standing stone.
In total, ten conjoined trenches were mechanically excavated, all of which contained similar stratigraphic sequences. Underlying the modern surface of the yard, all of the trenches contained a complex of levelling deposits which increased in depth towards the south-eastern end of the yard. These modern dumped deposits contained exclusively late 20th-century finds and overlay a brown, sandy clay loam, buried-soil horizon that contained both 19th- and 20th-century artefacts, including pottery and brick fragments. This soil horizon represented the topsoil which formed on the site both prior to, during and after the construction of the property at No. 17 Church Road. It is uncertain precisely when the yard was created which resulted in the sealing of this soil horizon, however, it was during the second half of the 20th century. In the two trenches in the south-eastern corner of the yard, the buried-soil horizon sealed a thin deposit of redeposited natural subsoil, which increased in thickness towards the south-east to a maximum thickness of 0.2m. In turn, this localised layer of redeposited till overlay a second buried-soil horizon of sandy clay loam which contained no finds. This lower buried-soil horizon is interpreted as representing the ground surface of the area prior to the construction of the property at No. 17 Church Road. It possibly dates to when the site formed part of a garden associated with an adjacent, earlier building represented on 19th-century maps of Kells. The layer of redeposited glacial till that separated the two buried-soil horizons possibly represents an episode of landscaping of this earlier garden. Outside of the south-eastern corner of the yard the two buried-soil horizons formed a single deposit.
Despite being located in an area where the deposition of various modern deposits to form a level surface for a yard could be expected to have created a ‘zone of archaeological preservation’, no deposits, features or artefacts of archaeological significance were observed during the course of the monitoring. Although the methodological compromises inherent in undertaking a watching brief reduce the confidence that can be placed upon this negative evidence, it is probable that the area to the rear of No. 17 Church Road, Kells represents a genuine ‘archaeological blank’ that contains no deposits or features of archaeological significance relating to either the nearby possible standing stone (ANT 038–064) or the Early Christian ecclesiastical site of Kells.
References
Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 Medieval religious houses in Ireland. Dublin.
Hamlin, A.E. 2008 The archaeology of early Christianity in the North of Ireland. British Archaeological Reports, British Series 460 (ed. T.R. Kerr). Oxford.
Reeves, W. 1847 Ecclesiastical antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, consisting of a taxation of those dioceses, compiled in the year MCCCVI; with notes and illustrations. Dublin.