Environmental Sciences Research Institute

The North Coast Maritime Cultural Landscape Project

Investigator Tom McErlean

This survey of the maritime archaeology of the Causeway Coast, funded by NIEA, commenced in 2007 and is ongoing. The area encompasses the coastline from Downhill to Fairhead. Preliminary results demonstrate the extreme richness of the cultural remains within the study area. From Mesolithic times onwards, the easy access to high quality flint in the chalk cliffs of the coastal edge make it, in terms of resources, one of the most important prehistoric coastlines in Europe and the survey is slowly increasing the number of known sites of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze age date.

The once abundant Atlantic salmon harvest captured by early man in a number of key locations along the coast constituted another great resource and the archaeology of salmon fishing is among one of the themes being researched. Preliminary excavations in a cave adjacent to the Iron Age and Early Medieval royal fortress of Dunseverick, celebrated in Early Irish literature and history, have produced rich archaeological deposits and are to be further investigated in future seasons. The organisation and extant archaeology of the Anglo-Norman manors and Late Medieval Gaelic maritime lordships the area is also of great interest. The timeline of the survey extends to the 20th century and includes the built-heritage of ports and harbours, the industrial archaeology of early salt-making, quarrying, and the Ballycastle coalfields among others. The concluding phase of the maritime culture of the region is represented in World War Two sites and the built features associated with the rise of the resort coast in the 19th and 20th centuries.