2019:409 - BLACKABBEY, 23 Ballywalter Road, Greyabbey, Down

The proposal relates to an archaeological condition on a full planning permission for the erection of a two-storey replacement dwelling, access and associated services. The site is located adjacent to the substantial, albeit disturbed, platform rath (DOW012:009) some 3km east of Greyabbey in open countryside on the Ards peninsula.

Although the proposed new-build is to be built adjacent to an existing archaeological site, the footprint and the profile of the proposal will be similar to the existing barn, with the ridge heights remaining exactly the same. It is therefore suggested that the impacts on the setting of the rath from the new build will be negligible.

In response to the HED planning conditions an archaeological testing programme was proposed consisting of three machine-dug test trenches, two positioned over the footprint of the proposed house and the third along the line of the sewage and associated percolation area.

Testing took place on 18 November 2019. Testing in the trench closest to the rath uncovered the remains of a 19th-century north-south running agricultural drainage feature. The lack of evidence for an associated ditch in this trench would confirm the interpretation that the monument DOW012:009 is a platform rath.

Nothing else of interest was uncovered in this or the other two trenches investigated.