2018:710 - BIA Airport, Aldergrove - British, Antrim

Archaeological test trenching was carried out in advance of development at the site of Car Hire Compound at lands adjacent and west of Belfast International Airport, Aldergrove in response to planning condition imposed upon grant of planning which required an archaeological programme of works to be devised and implemented. Test trenching identified an area of archaeological activity located within the southern portion of the development area surviving as a potential prehistoric ring ditch containing an internal pit. As this activity would be impacted upon by the proposed development the remains underwent archaeological excavation.
The remains of a circular ring ditch formed the principle archaeological remains. This feature survived as a subsoil-cut ditch (F3/F12) enclosing an area 7.5m in diameter internally. The ditch had a largely V-shaped profile with the exception of its east side where the base widened to form a more U-shaped profile. It ranged in depth from 0.2m at its west side to 0.5m along its southern side, becoming more shallow again towards the east and north. The ring ditch was on average 1.3m wide, narrowing to 1.03m along its northwest side.
A single post-hole (F36) was uncovered cut into the outer edge of the ditch at its south-west side. The full nature of the post-hole was obscured by the later backfill material but appeared to be at least 0.46m in diameter and 0.47m deep having been filled with a grey/brown heavy silty clay (F31) which was lightly charcoal flecked.
The ditch contained two terminals along its west side forming a 1.38m entrance to the enclosed area. At each terminal the fills of the ditch displayed evidence of intense burning in the form of charcoal-rich deposits (F40, F20, F21, F22). This was most evident within the north terminal of the ditch where deposit F22 was noted during excavation as extending along the base of the feature as a wide charcoal-rich lens of material overlying a heat-affected subsoil which had been oxidised and reddened. A narrow slot-like feature (F3) extended between the two terminals, as if to close off the entrance to the internal area of the ring ditch. The slot formed a shallow arc joining the two terminals and was on average 0.2m wide and 0.1m deep with a V-shaped profile. It was filled with a charcoal-rich dark grey/black sticky silty clay (F4) which also produced small fragments of burnt bone. There was no obvious stratigraphic relationship between the southern terminal of the ring ditch (F12) and slot trench F3 as the former shallowed towards the ditch terminal, however a section placed through the northern terminal of the ring ditch appeared to show the slot trench cutting the outer fill of the ditch suggesting that the slot trench was a later phase of activity at the site.
Two sherds of pottery were recovered from the ring ditch; a single sherd from the southern terminal of the ditch from deposit F8 while a second sherd was recovered from the southern portion of the ring ditch from deposit F13.
The remains of a large subsoil-cut pit (F9) were uncovered within the area enclosed by the ring ditch. The pit was placed off centre and within the north-west quadrant of the enclosed area. This pit had been greatly truncated by three modern field drains (F16, F18, F25) making it difficult to establish its exact dimensions.
The identified archaeological activity is located within a slightly raised area to the south of this and while still being located on heavy clay soil, would have afforded a better location for past occupation activities. The archaeological remains underwent hand excavation and confirmed that the activity in this area survived as a penannular ditched enclosure, similar to a Bronze Age ring ditch, with the entrance facing west. The enclosure is similar in shape and size to that of prehistoric ditches, which represent the remains of burial monuments of primarily the Bronze Age.

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