2014:479 - Drumadoon Site 1 (A26 Road Scheme), Antrim

The dam was initially identified using LIDAR during the planning stages of the road scheme and its size and shape were further confirmed during field walking. The site was located in Drumadoon townland, in a piece of boggy land between the Killagan and Frosses roads and at the foot of a drumlin. In its entirety the dam measured 35m long and 20m wide and consisted of two main channels and three banks, a smaller channel connected the dam to a stream which lay to the north-east. The layout of channels and banks meant that in plan the dam was ‘U’ shaped. The flax dam, while maybe not considered as archaeologically significant as some of the other sites excavated on the A26, is an important relic of an industry that thrived within mid-Antrim and the Braid Valley during the 19th century. The area around the Braid Valley was one of a number of centres in the north of Ireland that were important in the production of flax and the manufacture of linen; the others being the Lagan Valley, south Antrim/north Down, south Armagh and around the Sperrins (McCutcheon 1980). Although linen has been produced in Ireland for thousands of years the increase in its production and popularity came about due to a number of factors: demand from England, the coarseness of Irish wool and, during the 1860s, the scarceness of cotton owing to the American Civil War (Rynne 2006). To produce linen the flax has to be prepared and the necessary fibres removed. In order to do this the flax plant is pulled from the ground, dried and then soaked in water for up to two weeks (Rynne 2006), in a process known as retting. It is this retting process that involves the use of the dam. An early, and very probably contemporaneous, account of this process is given by Martin Doyle in his book on Practical Husbandry and Rural Affairs (1839). Here he describes how “The trench should…be from eight to ten feet wide…at least three feet six inches deep.” (Doyle 1839, p. 195). Eight to ten feet is the equivalent of 2.43m to 3m in width and 3 feet 6 inches about 1m deep, this fits the size of the channels that were present within the dam on the site. The basis of the dimensions is that they would allow two men to work together within the channel placing and lifting the flax. Doyle also states that “…the trench should be dug into clay or other retentive soil” (1839, p. 195). Again this was clearly the case at Drumadoon with the both the peat and the clay subsoil holding water, and as such did not require the sides and base of the dam to be lined. Once the pond or dam was created the flax was packed in tightly and large stones placed on top to weigh it down; the flax was then left for between 10 and 14 days (McCutcheon 1980). This soaking caused the flax to start to decompose and when removed the flax fibres that were used to produce the linen could be more easily separated from the remainder of the stalk (McCutcheon 1980). Prior to the flax being sent to the scutching mill, where the fibres were removed from the stalk, the wet flax was dried, often just being lain out in the fields (Rynne 2006). Given the dam's location, the slopes of the adjacent drumlin would have been perfect for this, allowing the flax to dry while keeping it out of the wet boggy ground. Eventually the linen trade and the large mills began to die back at the start of the 20th century, in response to the re-emergence of American cotton, growth in wool exports from Australia and New Zealand and the beginning of the development of synthetic fibres (Rynne 2006 and McCutcheon 1980). Despite all of this flax dams were put back into use during the Second World War. With the difficulties in importing cotton and wool, linen was required both for clothes and for the war effort, especially in the production of aircraft. The Vickers Wellington bomber for example was constructed using a geodetic frame that was then covered in, predominantly Irish, linen. Because of this need farmers once again started to grow flax for the production of linen and instead of creating new flax dams some of the older dams that were still extant were reopened and reused. While no 18th- or 19th-century artefacts were recovered from the dam or its vicinity a number of mid-20th-century bottles and rusted pieces of farming equipment were present within the fills (F1503, F1504 & F1508). This indicates that the dam probably went out of use around the late 1940’s or early 50’s and would therefore suggest that it was in use during the period of the Second World War. Unfortunately there is no clear evidence whether the dam was older or whether it had been newly created during this time. REFERENCES

Doyle, M 1839 A Cyclopædia of Practical Husbandry and Rural Affairs. Dublin.

McCutcheon W A 1980 The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland. Belfast.

Rynne C 2006 Industrial Ireland 1750-1930: An Archaeology. Cork.

NAC, Farset Enterprise Park, 638 Springfield Road, Belfast, BT12 7DY