Work to shed new light on an ancient passage tomb in Causeway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty has been attracting public and media attention.
A dig at Ballintoy, supported by landowner liaison and public engagement carried out by Causeway Coast & Glens Heritage Trust, was joined by a CCGHT-hosted group of 40 visitors (despite rain and howling wind!). It also drew coverage on BBC Radio Ulster’s Kintra programme and social media interest too.
The Early Neolithic monument has been yielding up its secrets thanks to the project ‘From Brittany to Ballintoy’, funded by the Research and Revival Scheme of the Historic Environment Fund, Northern Ireland.
The ‘Druid Stone’ – formerly known as ‘Mount Druid cromlech’ despite no connection with Druids – is a simple passage tomb of a type known from various places along the west coast of Britain and around the coast of the northern part of Ireland which dates to the Neolithic (approx 3900BC), when people first started farming in Ireland. A find of southern Breton Late Castellic pottery at one of these tombs at Achnacreebeag near Oban points towards Brittany as an area of origin for their builders.
Excavations at the Druid Stone by John Mogey in 1939 uncovered a charcoal-rich layer containing flint and cremated human bone around much of the monument’s exterior, but sadly all his finds have been lost.
New Dig
The new excavation, by Dr Cormac McSparron (QUB) with Dr Alison Sheridan for Archaeology Scotland and undertaken between 20th and 22nd January in challenging conditions. It aimed to obtain dating material that could show when the passage tomb was built.
Sample for Optically Stimulated Luminescence were also taken by Dr Florian Cousseau and Professor Chris Scarre for an international Durham University project called Megalithic Origins: the emergence of monumentality in Neolithic Western Europe, led by Dr Marta Diaz-Guardamino.
The dig relocated the black layer and found the same range of materials, so radiocarbon dating of short-lived species charcoal and of cremated bone can be carried out. It also demonstrated that this layer and its stone capping ran over, and therefore post-dated, the packing stones for the passage tomb uprights, and it also showed there had been no cairn between the tomb and its circular kerb.
Secondary activity was also found: sometime between 2300 and 2000 BC, sherds of a Beaker pot were placed in a small pit dug into the black layer. Dr Sheridan will return to the area later this month to lecture in Ballycastle.
Radio Coverage
A pre-excavation radio interview for Radio Ulster’s Kintra programme, broadcast on 1 February, can be downloaded here and accessed until the end of February here.
The From Brittany to Ballintoy project is part of a broader research initiative, Boyne to Brodgar, which includes a £50K project, Scotland’s Earliest Megalithic Monuments, led by Archaeology Scotland and funded by the Audrey Henshall Legacy Fund administered by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
Many thanks to Dr Alison Sheridan, National Museums Scotland, for the contextual information in this article. Landscape photo by David Craig, dig photo by Professor Chris Scarre.