Unearthing the past - archaeologists reveal what they found at the site of new dual carriageway

A PACKED audience turned out to Kickhams Creggan GAA pavilion last week to hear a fascinating talk organised by Creggan Local Heritage Group.

The information evening on the work of archaeologists during the recent upgrading of the Randalstown to Castledawson Road featured two archaeologists who worked on the road and provide insights into their work including aspects of human settlements dating back up to 6000 years BC.

Husband and wife team Jonathan Barkley and Katy McMonagle also brought along some ancient artefacts discovered during the work.

The £189m scheme to upgrade 14.7 kilometres of the A6 North Western Transport Corridor between Randalstown and Castledawson had commenced in June 2017.

A joint venture by Farrans and Graham completed the design and construction of the dual carriageway, beginning at the western end of the Toome Bypass and ending at Castledawson Roundabout, with 8km of access roads.

The project was delivered in two phases. The first phase of the £135 million A6 scheme, delivered by the joint venture was officially opened in September 2019 and the second in June 2021.

The construction of the flagship roads scheme contributed to the economic development of the region, bringing long-term benefits to road users and local communities.

It also helped to secure jobs in the construction industry, with the vast majority of the construction spend going directly to the local economy.

The scheme was a welcome addition to Northern Ireland, reducing congestion and journey times for the 20,000 vehicles per day which travel along the route.

The project crossed the private land of 132 landowners and along the fringe of a traditional Whooper Swan winter feeding site of international importance, located immediately to the west of Toome.

As the road covered a wide area of archeological significance, the team at Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd was called in.

Established in 1997, ‘North Arc’ is Northern Ireland’s longest established archaeological consultancy.

They also worked on the nearby Toome bypass.

Site Director Katy began the talk by detailing some of the findings from over 200 test trenches which were dug.

Overall, 23 sites of interest were discovered.

She explained that the first signs of human activity in Ireland can be dated to around 10,000 years ago.

In terms of the Mesolithic period, common findings are very small pieces of worked flint, used to cut and for hunting and exploring.

In the later Mesolithic period, she said that there are more likely to be stone axe heads, evidence of wood working and from around 6000 BC ‘things that look quite nice as well as being practical’.

She said such finds showed evidence of trade being carried out, such as stones which came from the north Antrim coast.

Moving into the Neolithic period, Katy said that in around 4000 BC there is evidence of farming, domestication of animals and cultivation of land.

At one site near the shores of Lough Beg, she said that 91 pieces of pottery from one pot were found.

“During this period, there were only bowls, no flat bottomed plates,” she explained, adding that there is evidence of wood charcoal, indicating that cooking was taking place.

Katy said that many ‘pits’ were found, some containing broken pottery.

It is not known if this was some form of ritual burial - no human or animal remains were found - or if the pits were simply a primitive form of a bin!

Sites on the north shore of Lough Beg were identified as Bronze Age or 2500 BC - a change in culture reveals metalwork and more advanced beaker vessels, often intricately decorated and used for food and cooking.

At another site, a hearth and built mound were found.

A large trough was found containing burned stones and wood, and Katy speculated that this could have been used for cooking, as a bath or sauna, or even for brewing beer!

Projects Manager Jonathan, who has directed some of North Arc’s biggest excavations, is a specialist in post-medieval ceramics and took up the presentation as it moved into the Iron Age and early Christianity.

He discussed and area near Moneynick, where holes and gullies were found, indicating that stakes and posts would have been driven into the ground to accommodate animal fencing and housing.

He said that the area would have been desirable in terms of habitation, saying that soil towards the area of Castledawson would become ‘leechy and claggy’.

He added that all the sites were known by their townland names and that at Artresnahan, an enclosure was found with evidence of four structures inside, which caused ‘a few head scratches’.

“Raths and ringforts were traditionally defended farmsteads but we don’t know exactly what this was for.”

Among the items retrieved were metals, souterrain ware, flax seeds and a blue glass bead from the hearth, as well as a lot of black organic matter.

One intriguing find was the skull of a calf, containing the remains of a wooden stake right through it.

Jonathan said this showed evidence of tanning, as the hide would have to be staked and spread out to dry it.

A barrel lid of solid oak ‘as solid as the day it was buried’ and parts of an ash spade were also found.

Wooden staves of Scots Pine were also uncovered. Jonathan said this was particularly unusual as Scots Pine died out at the end of the Neolithic period because of the wet climate and was not reintroduced until the 1700s.

He said that while climate change had always happened and that there had been some huge shifts in temperature over the centuries, man was now ‘speeding it up’.

“Yes, there would have been a lot more species of tree that were wiped out by the increasingly wet weather, but what we found mostly here was grassland - lots of trees were planted in the interim but they would have been chopped down to make way for farmland and to build housing and fencing.”

A carved handle, potentially that of a flail, was also uncovered, as well as a type of wooden basin, fewer than half a dozen of which have ever been found in Ireland.

Jonathan said that it was made out of alder wood and crumbled upon excavation, but conservationists were able to put it back together again.

Flat bottomed and shallow, it has a hole in the bottom and Jonathan reckons that, in accordance with some of the hundreds of rules in the ancient Irish Brehon laws, it may have been a vessel involved with cheese-making or dairy products.

“So we have cheese, or certainly food production, flax, wood work, leather tanning, metal slag - these are all industrial things - was this a place principally used for industry related to a bigger or more prestigious settlement?”

At Moneynick, a more classic rath 40m in diameter with a circular house at its interior was found, dated AD 660-770.

Close by was another rath and souterrain, as well as an animal enclosure which contained cow and sheep droppings and the remains of beetles.

Jonathan said that a medieval enclosure at Gortgarn ‘annoyed the engineers and people of Science’ as ‘we have no idea what it is’.

Sixty pits were dug and field borders discovered.

An early plantation site was also found, with a clay pipe unearthed, dated between 1580-1620.

He said that this was one of the rarest finds, as the early Irish post-medieval settlers had left ‘hardly a trace at all’

A fascinating detail is that some of the enclosures are located just kilometres from the estimated site of the famed Lough Ravel Crannog, one of the ‘great last sites of Irish antiquity’.

Scholars of old have detailed how treasures such as bronze swords, silver brooches, pins and other great treasures were discovered at the site - a fortified island dwelling which has now been lost in the mists of time - probably drained or filled in, although the townland means ‘field of the lake’

Many of the items were whisked away and collections sold for huge sums, some of which can now be found in museums all over the world, including the British Museum and the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

The crannog is thought to have been a site of great importance in ancient Ireland and a base for the ‘Robber King O’Neill’.

Jonathan said: “These guys just came and took armfuls of stuff and either put it in private collections or sold it for huge sums. We don’t know where half of that stuff is. We believe that there was a cauldron and bronze shields in one of the collections.”

Answering questions later, Katy said that the spread of human habitation from the north coast towards Lough Neagh and beyond was simply people ‘following the fish, following the river’.

“The spread of movement was largely by boat, and all resource driven,” she explained.

While the couple said metal detecting was ‘a big no no’ they encouraged anyone who finds an artefact to report it for further exploration to take place.