2024:405 - Lidl, Carrickfergus, Antrim

This report was commissioned by MBA Planning and compiled by AHC Ltd on behalf of Lidl NI. The proposed development is located to the west of Carrickfergus, approximately 1km from the historic core settlement of the town. The proposed development lies in an archaeologically sensitive area with the ecclesiastic site of the former Woodburn Abbey (ANT 054:031) located to the north-east of the development.
The proposed development consists of the demolition of existing discount supermarket, erection of replacement discount supermarket and drive-through café, provision of accesses, landscaping and associated site works.
In their consideration of previous planning applications in the vicinity, HED Historic Monuments noted that the application site was adjacent to the medieval ecclesiastical site Woodburn Abbey and requested an archaeological evaluation. It was therefore proposed to undertake an archaeological evaluation of the extreme eastern end of the site, an area which was not tested in the previous four phases of archaeological works on the site.
The upper half of the profile of the 40m-long test trench consisted of material imported onto site to construct the modern tarmacadamed surface. Below these layers, the levels of the naturally sloping ground had been crudely levelled up by the introduction of redeposited clays overlain by builder’s rubble. The redeposited clay, particularly in the area of the south end of the archaeological trench, had been deposited onto an old ground surface, with the associated buried soil horizons surviving as basal dark brown loam.
Nothing of archaeological interest was recorded in this phase of works.