2015:402 - 8 Old Belfast Road, Ballyloran, Larne, Antrim

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Antrim Site name: 8 Old Belfast Road, Ballyloran, Larne

Sites and Monuments Record No.: ANT 040:073 Licence number: AE/15/88

Author: Jonathan Barkley

Site type: Early medieval souterrain and house

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 737929m, N 901631m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.843514, -5.852454

At this site a a souterrain and a possible ditch feature had been uncovered in the north-eastern corner of the area when water pipes were inserted in 1983 and 1998 respectively. Trenching, and the subsequent topsoil strip, uncovered the partial remains of a souterrain and a sub-rectangular house and associated features.

HOUSE

The remains of a single rectangular house, measuring 8m long and 6m wide orientated roughly north to south, were uncovered. The house is defined by a single wall gully and several areas of burning within the interior probably mark post-holes that would have supported the roof. The western side of the structure, especially the south-west corner, is poorly defined and has probably been destroyed by the insertion of pipes in 1983.

SOUTERRAIN

The souterrain appears to be Z-shaped in plan and can be divided into three sections. The first section is approximately 9m long and is orientated north-east to south-west, running parallel to the 1983 pipe trench. This section is filled by a dark brown charcoal soil and may have been deliberately infilled. The souterrain then turns through 90º running south-east to north-west. Most of this section has been destroyed by the 1983 pipe trench. At the northern end of this section one of the capstones was clipped and removed by the machine revealing the still-intact structure. This intact section appears to be quite small, extending for approximately 2m. Finally, the souterrain turns through 90º again and continues along a north-east to south-west orientation for a further 14m. While the roof in this section is not intact there do appear to be stones present along both external edges.

The fill within this section is a soft, loose, dark greyish-brown silt, which produced a sherd of early medieval Souterrain Ware pottery. Given its location this third section is assumed to be the ‘ditch’ that was identified during works on the site by Water Service in 1998. On this basis this section is probably 1.5m deep and may contain more habitation material. The 1998 trench could not be immediately identified, but this section does appear to have been badly disturbed at its southern end.

The decision was taken not to excavate and the site was covered with a geotextile and topsoil.

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