County: Down Site name: St Elizabeth’s Church, Churchquarter, Dundonald
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: AE/13/210
Author: Sarah Nicol
Site type: Medieval bailey ditch
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 741777m, N 873888m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.593361, -5.806083
Excavations took place in advance of the construction of an extension to the church.
Monitoring on the site uncovered a large Anglo-Norman ditch (1169 - late 12th century) running across the site which was clearly associated with Dundonald Motte. It is probable that this is the ditch to the bailey which had previously been discussed as not existing at Dundonald. The upper layers of the ditch had been heavily disturbed by modern features, however, it did appear to contain layers of re-deposited subsoil which may have been associated with an internal bank. The basal layers within the ditch contained a layer of crushed sea shells overlying a clay layer which contained roof slates, pottery and animal bone.
Cutting the top of the ditch was a field boundary identified on the 1st edition OS map which did not contain any artefacts. There were also layers of buried topsoil, rubble and modern topsoil deposits overlying the ditch to a depth up to 1m.
At the northern end of the site in between a large concrete foundation and the side of the church, a small pit containing disarticulated human remains was uncovered. It contained pieces of coffin, cloth from the coffin lining and a minimum of two individuals. This material was cleaned but as per instruction from the NIEA Built Heritage Survey, Licencing & Treasure Area Unit Inspector no further post-excavation work was done on this material.
The insertion of a new power cable unearthed more disarticulated human remains overlying an area immediately to the south of the graveyard along the northern boundary of the site. Hand excavation was undertaken to recover any disarticulated remains and to look for any burials still in place. A number of layers dating to the 1940s – 1960s were excavated, all of these contained disarticulated human remains along with broken coffins and coffin furniture. No burials were uncovered in situ. As per instruction from the Survey, Licencing & Treasure Area Unit Inspector the only post-excavation work done on this material was the assessment and careful cleaning of any coffin name plates uncovered on the site in an attempt to identify the names of a few of the people disinterred.
Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, Farset Enterprise Park, 638 Springfield Road, Belfast, BT12 7DY
