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A community excavation within Moira Demesne – a public park in Northern Ireland – has revealed finds spanning from prehistory through to the 18th century. Once the location of a fine country house called Moira Castle, the excavation is being undertaken as part of the Community Archaeology Programme Northern Ireland (CAPNI), based at Queen’s University Belfast and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, conducted in partnership with Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council. The fieldwork has been ongoing since the start of June, with a team of Queen’s archaeologists led by Ruairí Ó Baoill working alongside university students, volunteers from the local community, and local school groups coordinated through Lisburn Museum.
During the 17th and 18th century this was the castle home of the Rawdon family, before it was demolished in the early 19th century. Sir Arthur Rawdon (1662-1695) was a keen horticulturalist and botanist who imported 400 plant species from the Caribbean, and he is reputed to have had the first greenhouse constructed in Ireland c.1690. The excavation has focused on a building depicted in a map of the estate from 1780, shown down slope from the castle, and the archaeologists have revealed wall foundations surrounded by cobbled surfaces as well as a range of artefacts from this time period including fragments of wine bottles, imported pottery, and coins.
‘We lifted the turf layer to come down straight onto the foundations of the walls and a really beautiful cobbled surface,‘ Ruairí said. ‘While the work is ongoing, what we have identified to-date suggests that this might well be the remains of Sir Arthur’s greenhouse.’
A number of Bronze Age flint flakes have also been uncovered, showing that this site was in use over 4,000 years ago. The investigation is ongoing, but the fieldwork suggests that the post-medieval building may be sitting over a prehistoric barrow.
Councillor Tim Mitchell, Communities and Wellbeing Chair of Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council said: ‘This dig pushes our knowledge of settlement on the Moira Demense site to the Bronze Age, and possibly further, which is hugely exciting. We look forward to displaying the finds in Lisburn Museum in due course.‘
Text: Kathryn Krakowka / Image: Queen’s University Belfast
