EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Antrim
Dromore, Co. Antrim
Early Medieval Raised Enclosure.
Grid Ref: D04751354 (30475/41354)
SMR No. ANT 027:006
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: 1964.
Site Director: A. E. P. Collins (Ancient Monuments Branch, Ministry of Finance).
The site was a raised enclosure, set on a mound approximately 3m high. The site was
destroyed subsequent to excavation as part of a farm improvement scheme. Excavation
showed that a natural hillock had been deliberately scarped to create the enclosure mound.
The top of the mound contained evidence for occupation. Postholes, pits and shallow gullies
provided structural evidence, and three separate houses could be identified.
House I was partially defined by a sub-circular drainage gully which enclosed ten postholes
and one small pit (Fig. 22). Small sherds of souterrain ware were recovered from the fill of
the pit.
House II was also partially defined by a sub-circular drainage gully which enclosed six
postholes and a shallow basin. A few sherds of souterrain ware were found in the fill of the
basin.
House III was a stone-built structure, of rectangular form with rounded corners (Fig. 23). The
walls survive in places to a height of three courses. Much of the interior was paved with flat
basalt slabs. A couple of sherds of souterrain ware were the only artefacts found in
association with this structure.
Fig. 23: Hearths to the east of House I at Dromore, Co. Antrim (after Collins 1968, 63).
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