Since our
last blog, the members of Ballintoy Archaeological and Historical Society have
been very busy with Ballintoy’s Hidden History project. As you know, we are
trying to explore and tell the story of Templastragh Church, Ballintoy Castle
and an 18th century school at White Park Bay. To gather information we have visited historic
sites in the North Antrim area, travelled to Belfast to look at archives and
started work on our archaeological survey of Templastragh Church. Our
project is progressing really well and we want to share with you what we have
been doing. We hope you enjoy reading about our activities.
Visits to historic
sites
Undeterred
by the bitterly cold weather, 30 members of the Society went on a fieldtrip to
visit sites in the Ballycastle area on 21 March 2013. The fieldtrip was led by
Dr Colin Breen, an archaeologist at the University of Ulster. We commenced with
a visit to Kenbane Castle, then proceeded to Bonamargy Friary and concluded
with a walking tour of Ballycastle.
While the group enjoyed finding out about the history of these places,
the real purpose of the fieldtrip was to experience on-site the type of
questions we should ask and the observations we should make when visiting an
historic site. At Bonamargy Friary, for example, Dr Breen began by asking us to
consider why the original founders had chosen this specific site to build a
monastery. He then asked us to identify the parts of the Friary which were
built at different times, to note the different building styles and the main
architectural features, and to observe the position of Friary within the
landscape of the surrounding area. Colin
was teaching us the basic skills we need to use to interpret or ‘read’ the
historic buildings and sites we are exploring as part of our project.
Dr Breen teaching us how to "read" an historic site.
Thomas
McErlean, another archaeologist at the University of Ulster, led us on a field
trip on 17 May 2013 to sites which, like Templastragh Church, are associated
with the early history of Christianity in the North Antrim area. In glorious
sunshine, a party of 28 members of the Society visited Armoy Round Tower, Derrykeighan
Old Church, Billy Parish Church and Dunseverick Castle. The highlight of this trip was seeing a stone in
a ditch at Kilraughts bearing on both sides the Chi -Rho symbol, which was
carved about 1500 years ago. The symbol is made up of the letters X and P, and
is the oldest known monogram for Christ.
Stone with Chi-Rho symbol at Kilraughts
At Armoy Round Tower with Thomas McErlean
Research
On 16 April
2013, thirteen members of our Society, together with a couple of friends from
the Bushmills Folklore and History Group, travelled to Belfast to undertake
research in the Northern Ireland Monuments and Buildings Record (MBR). This
wonderful archive is managed by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, and is
available for anyone to use at their offices in Hill Street, Belfast. Our visit
was led by Gemma Reid, University of Ulster and Dr Liz Thomas, Queen’s
University Belfast. We consulted reports on previous archaeological surveys and
photographs of monuments in the Ballintoy area. We gleaned a great deal of information
on Templastragh Church, but unfortunately there was much less available about
Ballintoy Castle and the school at White Park Bay. We were also shown how to access online some
of the information held in the MBR. 
Accompanied
by some friends from the Bushmills group and Liz Thomas, 12 members of the
Society visited the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) on 6 June
2013 to continue our research. To assist
us, PRONI staff gave us informative talks on the collections they hold which
are particularly useful for anyone undertaking local history and, for our benefit,
highlighted sources on Ballintoy. To our delight they had put on display some
original documents relating to Ballintoy. The staff also gave us a tour of the
public areas of their fabulous new building, and showed us how to use their
electronic catalogues and order out documents.
Having received
all this expert advice, we were ready to undertake our own research. Among the many documents we consulted, the one
which aroused the most interest was a copy of a map of the Parish of Billy in
the mid 1650s, showing Ballintoy Castle. We will be returning to PRONI to
undertake more research.
Map of Billy Parish, c.1655, with detail of Ballintoy Castle. Reproduced
courtesy of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern
Ireland (Ref:D597/1/1).
Surveying Templastragh Church
As part of
our project we wanted to undertake an archaeological survey of Templastragh
Church. However, we had a problem: none of us had ever attempted such a thing!
Thankfully, expert help was on hand. On
2 May 2013, armed with tape measures, ranging rods, graph paper, pencils and
cameras, thirteen members of the Society met at the site to receive training
from Dr Colin Breen.
Colin spent a couple of hours teaching us the basic skills needed to survey a site. He also showed us how to take photographs of archaeological features, using ranging rods to demonstrate scale. Colin then decided it was time for us to give it a go! Assisted by Dr Liz Thomas and Dr Jill Campbell, archaeologists from Queen’s University Belfast, we divided our group into three teams. Team one surveyed the ruins of the larger church at Templastragh. Team two produced a preliminary floor plan of an earlier church, which stood in the graveyard nearer the sea cliffs, but today only some of its foundations remain. Team three took photographs of the Church, its main archaeological features and, of course, of their colleagues undertaking survey work! Further survey work has been undertaken at site by the Society and in the near future we will share our results with you.
Colin spent a couple of hours teaching us the basic skills needed to survey a site. He also showed us how to take photographs of archaeological features, using ranging rods to demonstrate scale. Colin then decided it was time for us to give it a go! Assisted by Dr Liz Thomas and Dr Jill Campbell, archaeologists from Queen’s University Belfast, we divided our group into three teams. Team one surveyed the ruins of the larger church at Templastragh. Team two produced a preliminary floor plan of an earlier church, which stood in the graveyard nearer the sea cliffs, but today only some of its foundations remain. Team three took photographs of the Church, its main archaeological features and, of course, of their colleagues undertaking survey work! Further survey work has been undertaken at site by the Society and in the near future we will share our results with you.
We hope this
update has given you a good overview of our progress. In the next one, we will
tell you about our efforts to encourage more local people, of all ages, to
become involved in the project and share their knowledge, memories and stories
of Ballintoy and the surrounding districts.
