The maritime cultural landscape survey of the Causeway Coast

Following on the success of our pioneering maritime heritage surveys of Strangford Lough (published in 2002) and Rathlin Island (forthcoming 2010), carried out in partnership with the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, we are currently carrying out a maritime cultural landscape survey of the Causeway Coast. The survey area extends form Castlerock on the west to Fairhead in the east and encompasses a coastline extremely rich in heritage material, ranging in date from the Early Mesolithic to the Post Medieval period. The Causeway Coast is arguably one the most prominent prehistoric coastlines in Western Europe and contains, among other sites, Mount Sandel, the iconic site for the Irish Early Mesolithic. Other important sites in this coastal zone include the Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement material and passage tombs at White Park Bay and the earthworks at Lissanduff, (Portballintrae), the important Early Medieval royal fortress of Dunseverick, the Late Medieval and Early Post Medieval Dunluce Castle with associated smaller castles at Kinbane and elsewhere.As with the previous NIEA coastal surveys the central focus of research concentrates on the three maritime zones of the seabed, the foreshore, and coastal edge, and their contextualisation with the surrounding hinterland. The area contains some of the most extensive and archaeologically rich sand dune systems and caves in Ireland. The Post Medieval archaeology includes many historic landing places, ports and harbours and important industrial archaeological sites of the coal mining, quarrying, kelp-making and salmon fishing industries. Fieldwork is far advanced and includes excavation projects in conjunction with the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork in Queens University Belfast, at a cave site at Dunseverick and at Dunluce Castle. It is planned to publish the results of the Causeway Coast survey in a monogramme in 2011.

For further information contact Thomas McErlean at tc.mccerlean@ulster.ac.uk

Heritage sites along the North Coast.
Click image for high resolution version.