2017:723 - Bushmills Holiday Park, Dunluce Road, Bushmills, Antrim

An archaeological evaluation in the form of machine-cut test trenching was carried out in relation to a request for more information by DfC:HED as to the potential archaeological impact of a proposed holiday park development at 16 Dunluce Road, Bushmills, Co. Antrim. A desk-based assessment has confirmed the undeveloped greenfield nature of the site and the existence of site ANT007:020 within the development boundaries as well as a potential archaeological feature identified as a circular crop mark (BMS7:3) alongside the northern boundary.
A total of 1.3km of machine-cut test trenches were excavated across the development area within a staggered pattern of 15m intervals. Test trenching has shown that the majority of the development area which underwent topsoil stripping did not contain archaeological remains, with no evidence for archaeological activity associated with potential cropmark BMS7:3.
Two areas of archaeological activity in the form of subsoil-cut features which produced prehistoric pottery were, however, located along the southern boundary of the development and the northern portion of the development.
Test trenching spanned an area of green field consisting of a wide strip of relatively level land along the northern portion of the site consisting of improved pasture and extended further east along the site over an area of low- lying reed-covered wetland to the north and the lower north-facing slopes of a bedrock outcrop which form the southern boundary of the site. Test trenching revealed that topsoil (F1) within the low-lying wetland area was on average 0.15 – 0.25m deep and directly overlay a natural heavy stick orange boulder clay (F2) Test trenching along the lower north-facing slope of the bedrock outcrop revealed topsoil on average 0.2m deep, overlying a drier orange glacial till natural deposit (F3). Two areas of the site did produce evidence for past archaeological activity – Area 1 & Area 2. Test Trench 29, which was placed in the location of the previously identified crop mark (BMS7:3), did not reveal any evidence of sub-surface archaeological remains, while test trenching across the area of BMS7:2 revealed only natural basalt bedrock outcrop. The remains of a small spread of charcoal-flecked brown silty clay soil (F4) were uncovered within Test Trench 18, situated 15m from the south-east end of the test trench and 24m north-east of the wooded copse which bounds the southern boundary of the site. The spread underwent hand excavation to assess its archaeological nature, proving it to be oval in shape, 0.5m x 0.65m in size and filling a shallow depression in the subsoil 0.1m deep. Three small sherds of prehistoric pottery were recorded from this shallow deposit. A 10m x 10m area was further topsoil stripped around this deposit to establish whether it represented the remains of a larger structure or other more extensive archaeological remains. No further archaeological deposits were identified within this wider area.
A second area of archaeological activity was identified within Field 1 within the northern portion of the development area. While the vast majority of the excavated test trenches within this field did not identify archaeological remains, a single subsoil-cut pit (F5) was uncovered within Test Trench 43 located 26m from the northern boundary and 30m from the western boundary of the development. The pit underwent partial hand excavation to establish its archaeological nature. This revealed the feature to be 1m x 0.8m in size and 0.25m deep having been cut directly into the natural subsoil. It was filled with a single deposit consisting of a dark grey soft silty clay (F6) which was lightly charcoal-flecked and produced two struck flint flakes.

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