2012:176 - Mound of Down, Downpatrick, Down

The Mound of Down (DOW037-028) is an impressive, elliptical-shaped, earthwork enclosure that contains a crescent-shaped mound. The monument, which is in state care, is located on the north-western edge of Downpatrick. In 2012 an episodic programme of archaeological fieldwork, consisting of topographic and geophysical survey followed by a limited season of excavation, was undertaken at the monument with the aim of refining and expanding the known archaeological sequence of the site so as to improve both its public presentation and inform the future management strategy for the site. The archaeological investigations formed part of a wider programme of works commissioned by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency that were intended to make the monument more presentable and attractive to both the local public and visitors from further afield.

Past reviews of the complex historical and place-name evidence relating to Downpatrick in the pre-Norman period suggest that the construction of the main enclosure coincided with the emergence of the place-name ‘Dún da Lethglas’ in the annalistic sources during the 11th century (Flanagan 1971, 91-103). Thomas McErlean has suggested that the historical context in which the emergence of Dún da Lethglas, and by extension the construction of the enclosure element of the Mound of Down, can best be placed is the ending of dynastic disputes amongst the Dál Fiatach with the establishment of Niall as King of Ulaid in 1016 (2002, 72-73). Furthermore, it is widely accepted that the crescentic mound within the enclosure is an unfinished motte whose construction was begun shortly after John de Courcy’s arrival in Ulster in February 1177, but abandoned when he established his main caput at Carrickfergus by the summer of 1178 (McNeill 1981, 3, 42). The 2012 programme of investigations was designed to evaluate the accuracy of these unproven historical assumptions concerning the site.

Following clearance of the monument a new topographic survey of the Mound of Down was conducted. This identified that for the majority of its circuit the ditch surrounding the crescent-shaped mound was wide and deep, but in its north-west section, which coincided with the open or ‘unfinished’ side of the mound, it was significantly narrower and shallower. This change in the form of the ditch is visible as a marked step in the base of the ditch and a dog-leg-shaped kink in the line of its outer edge. The topographic form of the mound and variations in size of the surrounding ditch are consistent with the ditch having been initially dug to the level to which it survives in the north-east quadrant and the displaced soil then being used to form an inner bank or platform. This inner bank or platform appears to have been subsequently used to either retain or act as a base for the main body of the mound, the material for which was quarried from the widened and deepened ditch. It is unclear whether the ‘inner bank or platform’ represents an initial phase of Anglo-Norman motte construction or was a pre-existing structure, such as a pre-Norman rath.

In January 2012 ground resistivity and magnetic gradiometry geophysical surveys were conducted at the monument by the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, Queen’s University Belfast, working in partnership with Dr Tim Young of GeoArch Ltd. The surveys were conducted over the interior of the enclosure and part of the low-lying ridge of ground extending to the east of the enclosure. The largely even nature of the geological deposits at the site meant that good-quality data, with uniform background levels, were recorded for both the ground resistivity and magnetic gradiometry. Despite the quality of the data, the surveys produced no evidence for ancient activity at the Mound of Down. The most obvious features picked up in the surveys were the lines of the paths within the monument created by the use of ride-on mowers to cut the grass. Much of the survey area also showed evidence for the presence of former spade-cultivation ridges. A series of small negative resistivity anomalies within the enclosure were also imaged. Although these might be archaeological pits, the most likely explanation for these features is that they are tree throws. The only other significant anomaly was an amorphous area of negative resistivity on the north side of the ditch of the mound.

Excavations were conducted within the interior of the main enclosure in March and April 2012. Four trenches were manually excavated. The first trench was excavated over the amorphous area of negative resistivity on the north side of the ditch of the mound and demonstrated that the anomaly was geological in origin. It revealed a stratigraphic sequence typical for the interior of the Mound of Down. The sod overlay a thin cultivation soil, which in turn overlaid the surface of the natural boulder clay subsoil that had been truncated by spade cultivation. The upper part of the glacial till had been disturbed, apparently as a result of weathering and the action of roots. Given that the surface of the subsoil would have been repeatedly exposed to the elements during the episodes of spade cultivation, this degradation was not unexpected.

The ditch around the crescentic mound was investigated in two cuttings. Trench Two was excavated across the deeper part of the mound’s ditch on the north-eastern part of its circuit. Excavation revealed that the ditch had steep sides and a relatively flat base and contained approximately a depth of 1.5m of deposits. The accumulated slumps and silts that made up the ditch’s fills formed two groups: the stratigraphically earliest deposits consisted of several distinct layers that had been rapidly deposited - as a series of episodic slumps of unstable material from both the mound and outer edge of the ditch with some possibly deliberately back-filled material consisting of large stones. The upper half of the ditch sequence consisted of more slowly accumulating silts that had supported the growth of vegetation and which were sandwiched between occasional deposits of material that had slumped from both the mound and the outer edge of the ditch. An absence of finds from the lower fills, or any evidence to suggest the ditch had been recut, is consistent with an impression that the site was not intensively occupied for any duration following the construction of the crescentic mound. Radiocarbon dating of the charcoal fragments recovered from the basal fill of the ditch will be required in order to provide an archaeological date for the deeper part of the mound’s ditch.

Trench Three was dug across the western, shallow part of the ditch’s circuit. Excavation revealed that at this point in its circuit the ditch was only 0.35m deep. The sequence of ditch fills consisted of slowly accumulating silts sandwiched between slumps of material derived from the mound. The primary fill was a silty clay that contained a large number of stones and numerous fragments of 18th- or 19th-century bottle glass. The stone inclusions are interpreted as representing the clearance of stones brought to the surface during the digging of the spade cultivation ridges in the interior of the enclosure. The finds of bottle glass indicate that the easily accessible, shallow part of the ditch was re-cut during the 18th or 19th century, presumably so that its original silts could be used to fertilise the spade cultivation ridges.

The fourth trench was excavated into the back of the main enclosure bank at a point on its eastern circuit to the north of the mound. The bank was constructed from a sequence of dumps of loose gravel and stones contained within various clay and sandy clay soil matrices. This internal fabric of the bank was consolidated by being capped with a series of deposits of soil. Excavation revealed a buried soil horizon survived beneath the bank and radiocarbon dating of organic material derived from samples of this buried soil is recommended. The buried soil horizon sealed a truncated linear feature aligned north-east/south-west, which is the only archaeological feature identified at the Mound of Down that demonstrably pre-dates the construction of the main enclosure.

Despite the success of the excavations undertaken in 2012, because a programme of radiocarbon dating has yet to be commissioned, the Mound of Down remains archaeologically undated. Consequently, any conclusions about the site must remain provisional and rely heavily upon interpreting the upstanding remains in the context provided by a consideration of both the historical and place-name evidence. These suggest that the Mound of Down is a monument with either two or three principal phases of development. First, a rath was possibly built on the site at some point in the Early Christian period; secondly, the main enclosure was constructed; and finally, shortly after the arrival of John de Courcy in Ulster in 1177 AD, construction of a motte upon the site of the earlier, possible rath was begun and then abandoned before it could be completed.

References
Flanagan, D. 1971. The names of Downpatrick, Dinnseanchas 4, 89-112.
McErlean, T. 2002. Early medieval period, c.400-1177, in T. McErlean, R. McConkey and W. Forsythe, Strangford Lough. An Archaeological Survey of the Maritime Cultural Landscape, (Northern Ir. Archaeol. Mono. No. 1) Blackstaff Press, Belfast. 57-90.
McNeill, T. 1981. Carrickfergus Castle, County Antrim, (Northern Ir. Archaeol. Mono. No. 1) Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, Belfast.

Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT7 1NN