2012:653 - Moyraverty, Antrim

The NIEA asked the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork to carry out an evaluation of a possible rath site with a diameter of approximately 50m, visible on aerial photographs, at Moyraverty, Co. Armagh. Part of a housing estate has been constructed upon the westernmost third of the enclosure, and the central third had topsoil removed in preparation for further construction. This work was carried out without archaeological supervision. The third of the rath which has had topsoil removed was re-stripped using a back acting digger equipped with a toothless “sheugh bucket” under supervision. A number of archaeological features were then identified and surveyed allowing their positions to be plotted on the site development map, identifying possible targets for rescue excavation.

To the south-east of the site a wide curving feature appeared to be the ditch around the rath. On the inside of this ditch there was a broad curving spread of clay which is probably the remains of the truncated bank. A curving feature to the north of the site was initially thought to be the match of this feature, the ditch continuing around the north of the monument, however it was much narrower than the ditch section uncovered to the south and it seems more likely that it is an internal feature, possibly the match of the charred remnants of a double wicker wall or fence found inside the ditch on the south side of the enclosure. A small section of a similar feature was also detected close to the centre of the site.

A charcoal spread was found in the south central area of the site. A single fragment of coarse pottery and a few fragments of burnt bone were recovered from it.

Further excavation at the site, to resolve the exposed features, is scheduled for the spring of 2013.

Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast.