County: Antrim Site name: 1 Ballinlea Road, Magheraboy, Bushmills
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/22/014
Author: Naomi Richardson/Farrimond Macmanus Ltd
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 703052m, N 943853m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.231093, -6.379964
Archaeological test trenching was carried at the site of a proposed residential dwelling at lands at 1 Ballinlea Road, Co. Antrim in response to an archaeological condition imposed upon grant of planning under planning policy guidelines PPS6 BH4. A desk-based study confirmed that the proposed development was situated within an archaeological landscape with several archaeological sites and monuments (SMR) located within the surrounding landscape, including a souterrain (ANT004:124) which is recorded less than 5m from the site boundary. A total of 2 machine-cut trenches were excavated within the development area under archaeological supervision.
Excavation confirmed that in the area of the test trenches there was very little existing topsoil except
at the northern end of Trench 2 where it measured 0.15m in depth. The remainder of the area was covered with infill of large stones and mortar up to 0.45m in depth. This infill material directly overlay an orange, brown silty glacial till subsoil.
A number of potential subsoil-cut features were noted within each test trench. Within Trench 1 a linear feature (F1) was uncovered cut into orange, brown silty clay subsoil, which was 0.95m in width. A small section of this was excavated and a piece of modern ceramic was found on the base at a depth of 0.4m. This feature is likely to represent the remains of a modern drainage ditch and was determined to be of no archaeological significance.
Within Trench 2 several linear features were uncovered running parallel to each other. A small section of each was hand-excavated. Feature F3 measured 0.56m wide x 0.18m deep, running east-north-east/west-south-west. Fill of F3 (F4) was soft dark brown silty clay. Features F5, F7 and F9 ran parallel, running east-west. Feature F5 measured 0.55m wide x 0.1m deep, Feature F7 measured 0.56m wide x 0.05m deep and Feature F9 measured 0.58m wide x 0.07m deep. The fills of these linear features (F6, F8, F10) were soft dark brown silty clay. Linear features F11 and F13 also ran parallel running north-west/south-east. The former measured 0.56m wide x 0.18m deep and the latter measured 0.54m wide x 0.12m deep. They were each filled with soft dark brown silty clays (F12, F14). After investigation these were determined to be plough furrows and of no archaeological significance.
No archaeological material was identified during the test-trenching works.
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