Day One at Derrywoone Castle

We started our Year Two excavation at Derrywoone Castle on Tuesday; a bright sunny day (its always nicer in the north - or so Fintan says)! The setting of the castle is beautiful, surrounded by green park land.

We set about organising our cabins and our surveyor James set out the trench cuttings. The crew got busy removing the sod from the trenches.

Some of these trenches will investigate possible features shown on the geophysical survey which was undertaken by Joanna Leigh. We hope to find some evidence for tenant houses associated with the castle. The geophysical survey highlighted some linear features and blobs which could be of interest. We also set out Cuttings around the castle and we hope to start them next week - all very exciting!

We had some very nosy neighbours watching the proceedings with curiosity....... :-)

Year Two - Derrywoone Castle, Barons Court, Co. Tyrone

For the second year of the Ulster Scots Archaeological Project we will be looking at the site of Derrywoone Castle in Co. Tyrone.

The castle was built soon after 1619 by Sir George Hamilton of Greenlawe in Scotland as the successor to the O’ Neill 15th century tower on Island MacHugh in the nearby lake (shown below in the aerial image and first edition OS map). A typically Scottish feature present at Derrywoone is the finely carved corbelled-out staircase beside the doorway (shown in picture above). 

A survey, undertaken in 1622, records that, at Derrione (Derrywoone), Hamilton had begun to build a ‘fair stone howse, 4 stories high, which is almost finished, and a bawne of stone and lyme, 90 foot long, 70 foot broad and 14 foot high. The house takes up almost the full bawne. As soon as it is finished, he [Hamilton] intends to dwell there himself’. 

A large number of British families are recorded as planted at ‘Derrione’ including two freeholders, 10 leaseholders and 6 cottagers. The survey records that between Derrione and Cloghogenall an additional 88 Irish families reside. One of the aims of the upcoming research excavation will be to try and identify this settlement. 

We hope to undertake test excavations in the area beginning next week and will keep the blog updated with our results. Stay tuned! 

'Ulster Unearthed' features Servant's Hill!!

Well post-excavation analyses are well underway and we hope to have some results, including radiocarbon dates, in the coming weeks. The final report detailing the excavation results and interpretation of site will then be written by the director, Fintan Walsh. We will update the blog with any important results so remember to check back with us! 

The episode of  'Ulster Unearthed' focusing on our excavations at Servant's Hill was aired on Monday night at 8pm on UTV. It was a very interesting show and was very well put together as it highlighted all elements of the project - historical background research, excavation and community involvement. I hope some of the little diggers featured in the episode were excited with their TV appearance and i'm sure it will be remembered as a great day out! If you missed the show on Monday night it will be available for a short period on the UTV Player here. Hope you enjoyed watching as much as we did!

We hope to start work on the next research excavation in May! We will update the blog soon with more details!

Filming in progress on site in Bangor

Fieldwork completed...now to start post-ex!

Hi all, well we finished up on site in the last week and are really pleased with the preliminary results. Thanks to all the staff, volunteers, land owners and visitors who made the excavation so successful and fun! Hope all the little budding archaeologists will remember their time on site and that their experience will help bring history to life!

On one of our last days we were luckily given a loan of a fork lift and gage by the farmer which enabled us to take some great elevated photos!

Final day - view of Cutting Five!

Elevated view showing all the cuttings at Servants Hill.

So now we have to start work on the post-excavation analyses which will help with interpreting the site. We hope to keep you updated on any important findings along the way and will present a final interpretation of the features recorded during the past month! Any comments or queries please contact us at archaeology@iac.ie.

Site archive ready for post-ex work!

Open Day!

The Open Day was held on Saturday the 13th and the volunteers, local schools, archaeological societies, Young Archaeologist Club (YAC) groups, visitors to the North Down Museum, friends and neighbours were invited to come along and see what was going on. Fortunately weather was perfect which was great a relief to all. 

There were site tours with all the latest site interpretations being discussed, a display of the finds, including the lovely (possibly incomplete) flint arrowhead and a chance for the Downpatrick YAC to get digging. 

Members of the Downpatrick YAC group getting stuck in!

Nick and a few of the YAC members

A member of Claíomh (a military 'living history' group based in Ireland which re-creates 'live' images of Ireland's past) called William was a huge hit with his armour, swords and clothing from the 17th century.  Claíomh have their own blog at claiomh.blogspot.ie.

William from Claíomh showing a sword

Living history is not just for kids!

Experimental archaeology was also taking place with the construction of a willow and turf shelter by Bruce Crawford. He normally makes corracles but was persuaded to turn the technique upside down and try to build a small creat or creel house. He pushed upright willows into the ground and wove other willows round them to form a 'basket'. We experimented with the turves from the excavation, using them to form the walls. We did not quite manage to finish the walls but it really gave us an idea of how quickly a shelter could be built and what the best shape of turves would be.  

Some children had other ideas!

Heather James
Community Archaeologist (Northlight Heritage)

Site update - Very productive week!

Cutting 5 has been by far the most productive archaeological area at the site. It looks like we might have at least one circular post-built structure here. 

Line of post-holes show the line of a wall/ enclosing feature

There is also a very nice foundation trench at the south-west corner with in situ burnt posts. This is great as we will be able to identify the charcoal and determine what type of wood was used to construct these buildings.

Foundation trench in Cutting Five

Looks like we have a possible ditch in Cutting Four. Lots of burnt stone and charcoal in the primary fill. Hopefully this is domestic waste from the 17^th century buildings. There should be charred seeds and charcoal in this that could tell us about the environment and what people were eating on site – very interesting. 

Cutting Four - hopefully will provide some Plantation  period features!

Also a possible cobbled surface is showing in Cutting Two. This is obviously what was picked up in the geophysical survey as an area of resistance. There is a small gully to the side of this at the south-east end of cutting 2 – possibly part of the foundation for a building!

Cobbled surface identified in the geophysical survey!

Week Three - busy busy busy!

We have 8 school visits this week so we are very busy showing the children around the site. Christina shows all the school children some finds from her reference collection including some animal skulls which really get the attention – all the children think that they are dinosaur bones!!!

The highlight of the school visits is the digging and sieving and the children have been pilling into trench 3 digging away and finding lots of pottery (that has been strategically placed there by Stephen!). Its all a bit of fun really!

Meanwhile digging continues on site and one of our volunteers Ken is getting stuck in!

Ken is sieving hard to try and find some dateable finds! 

Some people are very enthusiastic and have dug themselves substantial features on site!

Stephen digs himself into a hole.

But the digging was worth it as some pottery turned up in Cutting Three!

Cutting Five continues and looks very well at this stage

Recording of Cutting Five is going well!