EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Antrim
‘Langford Lodge’ (Gartree td.), Co. Antrim
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Ref: J09617507 (30961/37507)
SMR No. ANT 058:017
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: September - October 1960.
Site Director: D. M. Waterman (Historic Monuments Branch, Ministry of Finance).
The site existed as a circular platform (24m by 25.5m in diameter, and 0.9m to 1.5m high).
An ice house associated with the ruined manor house had been cut into the site in the
nineteenth century.
Excavation showed that the site have a multi-phase history, beginning with a Neolithic phase
of occupation. The early medieval occupation occurred in two phases. In Phase I, an area
approximately 22m in diameter was enclosed by a ditch (1.5m to 1.8m wide and 0.6m deep).
A small – approximately 7.5m wide – square timber-posted house was discovered in the
centre of this enclosure, with an associated central hearth (Fig. 29). This structure was
surrounded by a shallow drainage gully. The area around the house appears to have had a
cobbled surface, but elsewhere the site was un-metalled. This occupation soil contained
sherds of souterrain ware, and its nature led the excavator to interpret this as representing
an animal stockyard, rather than human habitation.
In Phase II the ditch was moved outwards to its present position and the interior was raised
into a low platform. The enclosure appears to have formed part of the manorial gardens, and
cultivation has severely truncated archaeological features from this phase. A pair of stonelined
post-sockets were uncovered which presumably relate to a structure from this phase. A
few sherds of souterrain ware were found in these post-sockets.
Fig. 30: Plan of Phase I house at Langford Lodge, Gartree, Co. Antrim (after Waterman 1963,
47).
Reference:
Waterman, D. M. 1963. A Neolithic and Dark Age site at Langford Lodge, Co. Antrim, Ulster
Journal of Archaeology (Third Series), 26, 43–54.
47