2021:497 - The Abbacy, Ardquin, Portaferry, Down

This monitoring work was carried out to facilitate the creation of a foundation for a new wall to bridge an area of collapse along the north wall of the most northern part of the ruins of the Abbacy at Ardquin. These remains, part of a scheduled monument, have medieval origins as part of an episcopal manor and were last re-modified to continue that manor house function by Bishop Echlin in 1620. Subsequent to that they fell into ruin but then were reused as part of a modern early 20th-century farmhouse and associated yard and outbuildings. Now the northern ruins contain a garden area in their interior (See McQuillan 2017-18 for a full description of the site).

A 12m length of north wall of the northern east-west orientated part of the complex collapsed following an episode of unusually heavy rainfall. A partial reason for this was that the foundation on the northern exterior side had been significantly undermined in the late 19th/early 20th century, by a depth of over 1m, to level the natural summit topography and create a flat yard, leaving the wall sitting precariously on a ledge of earth on one side, against which concrete blockwork had been constructed at some point as a retainer.

The works to ensure stability of the surviving wall remains involved cutting back into earth and subsoil between, and flush with their interior faces, to establish solid strata for the creation of a foundation for a new supporting wall. The archaeological monitoring entailed a watching brief of this work (which was undertaken using a mini digger), and then a necessarily rapid drawn recording by measured sketch of the section of the stratigraphy which was revealed.

The stratigraphy complimented some parts of the survey undertaken by Dudley Waterman for ASCD (1966, 255-256) in that this northern part of the complex was depicted with a north-south later partition wall adjoining its inner face. To the east side of where this partition was located, remains of a cobbled surface were revealed in section, buried by later garden soils. To the west there were no cobbles. This partition wall was related to the re-use of this part of the complex in the late 19th/20th century as byres/outbuildings and the cobbles suggest a difference in functionality on either side of it at this time. In one area a lens of dark brown loam containing mortar and charcoal representing an earlier phase of building usage was identified underlying the cobbles.

The work indicated that the length of the wall which had collapsed was located between two later doorways which had been inserted along its length, and which had weakened its stability in combination with the aforementioned ground reduction exercise to the exterior. Other significant discoveries included a large windowsill fragment which was re-used during the conservation work and rough stone roof shingles, markedly different in character to the now gone roofs of the outbuildings and which likely represent original roofing material.

REFERENCES:
Jope (ed.) 1966 An Archaeological Survey of County Down
McQuillan, Liam Ulster Journal of Archaeology 2017-18, Third Series, Vol. 74. pp. 191-200.

Department for Communities: Historic Environment Division, BELFAST