Archaeological Explorations of Cultural Identity and Rural Economy in the North of Ireland: Goodland, County Antrim

Abstract

Renewed examination of an enigmatic settlement site perched atop a cliff above Murlough Bay in Goodland Townland, County Antrim, Northern Ireland calls into question long held ideas about Gaelic rural economy on the eve of the Ulster Plantation by reintroducing the complex cultural and political relationships between the north of Ireland and the Scottish isles. Long interpreted as temporary post-medieval booley huts associated with seasonal transhumance, recent reevaluation of the site suggests instead that Goodland represents a permanent seventeenth-century Highland Scottish village. Although the medieval linkages between the north of Ireland and the Scottish isles have long been acknowledged, twentieth-century sectarianism has subjugated awareness of the Highland (Roman Catholic) Scots focusing upon the legacy of the in-migration of Protestant LowlandScots during the Ulster Plantation. Material evidence at Goodland re-introduces the Highland Scot to the contested landscape of contemporary Ulster identity, while also facilitating analysis of continuity, change, and cultural complexity in the rural economy of early modern Ireland.

Materiality and Mutable Landscapes: Rethinking Seasonality and Marginality in Rural Ireland

“…The most well-known County Antrim site interpreted as a center for booleying activity lies to the north of Coolnagoppoge, and incorporates at least 129 huts in Goodland, Torglas, Knockbrack, and Bighouse townlands on the cliffs above Murlough Bay (Evans 1945;Graham 1954;Horning 2004b;O'Keeffe 2000;Williams and Robinson 1983). Excavations by Jean Graham in 1949 and 1950 and by Humphrey Case in 1952 and 1953 unearthed evidence for Neolithic use of the chalk land, but demonstrated that the huts were of post-medieval date (Case 1969(Case , 1973Case et al 1969;Graham 1954;Proudfoot 1958;Sidebotham 1950).…”

“…Excavations by Jean Graham in 1949 and 1950 and by Humphrey Case in 1952 and 1953 unearthed evidence for Neolithic use of the chalk land, but demonstrated that the huts were of post-medieval date (Case 1969(Case , 1973Case et al 1969;Graham 1954;Proudfoot 1958;Sidebotham 1950). Extensive surveying was carried out in 2003, identifying three settlement clusters (Horning and Brannon 2004;Horning 2004b). The houses exhibit a similar degree of deterioration, several are associated with cultivation ridges, and one of the clusters includes compound huts wholly unlike the prototypical single-unit booley houses discussed by geographers (e.g., Evans 1945;Graham 1954;Hannan and Bell 2000).…”

“…Material connections between Islay and Goodland are evident in the landscape survey from the Finlaggan Project, carried out by the National Museum of Scotland (Caldwell et al 2000), while sixteenth-and seventeenth-century maps note the use of the cliff top for Scottish beacons or warning fires (Hamilton 1822; Horning 2004b). Although the significant prehistoric to medieval linkages between the north of Ireland and the Scottish Isles have long been acknowledged, less attention has been paid to incorporating the Highland (Roman Catholic) Scots in twentieth-century narratives about the Ulster Plantation, reflecting the pervasiveness of sectarian memories (Horning 2004b;.…”

Focus found. New directions for Irish historical archaeology

“…Here a remarkable cluster of more than a hundred earthen houses and relic field systems lie atop an extensive Neolithic occupation. Recent re-evaluation and archaeological survey suggests that rather than being booley huts associated with the practice of seasonal transhumance, as long believed, the houses mark a permanent 17thcentury Highland Scottish village (Horning 2004;Horning and Brannon 2004). Twentieth-century sectarianism has long subjugated awareness of these Roman Catholic Scots who arrived as part of the Ulster Plantation.…”

Starting as we mean to go on. Why we need a theoretically informed historical archaeology in Ireland

“…Recent re-evaluation and archaeological survey suggests that rather than being booley huts associated with the practice of seasonal transhumance, as long believed, the houses mark a permanent 17thcentury Highland Scottish village (Horning 2004;Horning and Brannon 2004). Here a remarkable cluster of more than a hundred earthen houses and relic field systems lie atop an extensive Neolithic occupation.…”