2019:083 - Grey Point Fort, Ballygrot, Down

It is proposed to construct two semi-detached domestic dwelling on the site, with associated access and services. The site is located on the western side of The Fort, Helen's Bay; Grey Point Fort (DHP No 315) is adjacent to the north of the site and is in State Care of the Department for Communities. It is one of the last surviving coastal battery forts built around the coastline of Ireland in the 20th century.
The initial testing was carried out on 21 January 2019, and took the form of four machine-dug test trenches.
Trench 1 was located along the back edge of the proposed houses. It extended north-south for 17m and revealed a 0.3m deposit of hard compacted stone and gravel, overlying the natural yellow brown stiff, compacted glacial clay. The stone layer comprised quite large angular stones, many over 0.3m in dimensions, the gaps between which were filled by a gravel deposit. There was some evidence that this stone layer got less compacted and stony at the north end of the trench. It appeared that the upper surface of this layer created a roughly level platform, however it was not possible to be certain as the insertion of a later tarmacadam surface had largely flattened the area. A number of finds of glass and metal work suggested a 20th-century date for the stones layer. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted in the till underlying the stone layer.
A similar picture emerged from the evidence in Trench 2, located 10m to the east of the first and located along the front edge of the proposed buildings. Finds from this trench also suggested a 20th-century date for the stone deposit. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted within the underlying glacial till.
Trench 3 was located running east-west in the south-east corner of the site; it was positioned to assess the impacts associated with the construction of a driveway and service access route in this area. The western end of the trench exhibited the compact stone layer, however 6m from the eastern end of the trench the lowest courses of a north-south running wall, consisting of a double row of red brick, was uncovered, to the west of which was the compact stone, but to the east, a soft yellow brown clay loam fill, overlying the natural glacial till. This wall footing clearly delimited the eastern extent of the compacted stone layer. A small 1m square test pit was machine excavated to the south of the test trench, along its projected line, and the wall was noted to extend southwards and beyond the limits of the proposed development area.
Trench 4 was opened along the northern boundary to the development area. It was 25m in length. The majority of this northern area of the site had been previously disturbed by the insertion of a sewage pipeline running westwards from a manhole cover in the centre of The Fort road and exiting the north-west corner of the site. However close to the eastern end of the trench, a wall footing was uncovered, similar to that noted in Trench 3, but in this case running east-west. As with the footing in Trench 3, it appeared to form a boundary with softer ground to the north and a more compacted stone clay to the south.
Following these discoveries, HED was contacted and it was agreed that a number of areas should be opened to investigate the features further.
An additional phase of testing took place on 4 February 2019, with three additional areas examined. In Area A, while it was clear that there had been some disturbance, the northern extent of the ‘platform’ of compacted stone was delineated. This line was further revealed in the adjacent Area B. In addition the red brick footing, uncovered at the east end of Trench 4, was further revealed, and this appeared to delimit a line of more compacted stony clay.
Finally the area of the other red brick footing was uncovered in the area of the original Trench 3. Here the red brick feature was revealed to run northwards, before turning at a right angle to the east, and continued for a further 2.5m before being truncated by modern services associated with The Fort road. Once again finds clearly indicated a 20th-century date for all the features uncovered.
A further examination of the cartographic evidence, particularly the OS 1:10,000 metric scale Irish Grid map of the 1960s, revealed that up until relatively recently the development area had been part of a ‘disused camp site’, and the details recorded on this OS map show a road running along the northern boundary, defined by a dotted line, with a barrack block or hut indicated as existing in the south-east corner of the development area. On a wider scale this hut once formed part of a square with a total of ten huts apparently located around a barrack yard.
It is clear that the testing uncovered evidence for the roadway, running along the northern boundary of the site, albeit badly disturbed by the later insertion of a sewage pipeline. The testing also revealed evidence in the form of the hard compacted stony layer of the barrack yard, and finally, in the south-east corner of the site, the right angled red brick wall footing is evidence for one of the barrack blocks, which once existed on the site.
The cartographic evidence shows that the development area was, in the 1930s undeveloped green fields, which demonstrates that the ‘disused camp site’ post-dates this and is almost certainly associated with WWII activity in the area. The finds, all of which are 20th century in date, further attest to this interpretation.

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