2018:803 - Coolsallagh (Gill Hill), Down

Archaeological testing took place in August 2018 at Gill Hall Demesne, Coolsallag. Three trenches were opened across the projected footprint of Gill Hall located within the Historic Parks, Gardens and Demesnes registered as Gill Hall (D-081).
The Gill Hall estate was named after a Captain Magill an officer in Cromwell’s Army. Prior to the 1641 rebellion he is said to have obtained half the townland of Ballynagarrick from Art Óg Magennis for the sum of £150, and by the end of the Cromwellian war Magill had acquired a considerable amount of land. The Magill’s main residence was here at Gill Hall and by 1747 the Gill Hall estate extended to over 3,584 acres. An earlier house on the site was extended by Richard Cassels around 1763. The mansion was occupied by the R.A.F. during the Second World War but since was left standing gaunt and empty, until it was destroyed by fire in 1969 and thereafter demolished.
The testing proved inconclusive. Although evidence for walls was uncovered in the middle trench of the three trenches examined, no walls were found in either of the other two. Interpretation of the cartographic evidence would suggest that evidence for the house should have appeared in the southernmost trench, the fact that walls appeared only in the centre trench is puzzling. A number of explanations present themselves:
1. The main house is located further to the south and the features uncovered relate to some associated outbuildings
2. The evidence uncovered relates to the main house and the lack of evidence elsewhere is a product of differential disturbance.
In either case, it is certain that some evidence for buildings does survive in the area tested and more extensive testing is required to resolve the nature, date and extent of the surviving evidence for Gill Hall.

AHC Ltd, 36 Ballywillwill Road, Castlewellan, Co Down BT31 9LF