Basement of Ballyhackett

The ( stone-built ) basement of Ballyhackett near Larne in County Antrim in Northern Ireland , located at the base of a field wall, is a good example of a basement from the Irish Viking Age (around 1000 AD) The basement is basically between "rock -cut ”,“ earth-cut ”,“ stone built ”and“ mixed ”basement floors are distinguished.

Today it can be entered from the west side of the field wall, but the original access was probably on the east side of the wall. The linear arrangement of the aisles in the form of an F and the frequent occurrence of slips (very low passageways) show that the function of the basement was not the storage of goods as previously assumed. The total length is about 80.0 meters, with a total of six slips and a so-called trap pit .

Ballyhackett is a Scheduled Historic Monument .

See also

• Basement in Ireland

literature

• Mark Clinton: The Souterrains of Ireland. Wordwell, Bray Co. Wicklow 2001, ISBN 1-869857-49-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ There are essentially: earth-cut basements, primarily in County Cork; rock-cut basements, primarily in Antrim and Cork counties; stone-built basements with walls made of dry masonry are often found

Web links

• Description Engl. and picture

Coordinates: 54 ° 53 '26.4 "  N , 5 ° 53' 56"  W.