EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Antrim
Dunsilly, Co. Antrim
Early Medieval Raised Enclosure
Grid Ref: J14088890 (31408/38890)
SMR No. ANT 050:003
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: Summer 1974; Summer 1975.
Site Director: T. E. McNeill (Queen’s University, Belfast).
Excavation was undertaken on a motte prior to its destruction and revealed a number of
phases of occupation. The earliest phases of the site are represented by ephemeral remains
of circular structures, and a stone-built hearth (Fig. 27). This phase of (possibly) unenclosed
dwellings is succeeded by the construction of an enclosure bank with an internal revetment
or stone kerb. In a later phase of construction, a rectangular house was constructed (Fig.
28), using the interior bank as a supporting wall. The site then appears to have been
abandoned for a time, before being modified into an Anglo-Norman motte.
Finds from the site were dominated by souterrain ware (420 sherds), as well as a few objects
of glass and lignite.
Fig. 28: Plan of pre-enclosure B Phase at Dunsilly, Co. Antrim (after McNeill 1991-2, 83).
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