Marks of Time - A blog of sketches of historic buildings

coleraine 9. Mount Sandel Motte

9/12/2025

In 1177, John de Courcy set off from Dublin to invade Eastern Ulster and quickly subdued its inhabitants from Downpatrick right round the coast. He erected a castle at Kilsanctan, near Camus in 1197 which was followed by substantial grants of land to Scottish Norman noblemen, one of whom built a further castle at Coleraine. These were motte and bailey castles with palisade defences on top of a high motte and a lower courtyard or bailey also surrounded by a palisade on top of a rampart. Sometimes only a motte was constructed. Mount Sandel was the Coleraine motte with fine views over the river below. This was an existing fortification adapted for the purpose, with Mesolithic & Late Neolithic; as Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age remains found over the years. It is preserved by the Department for Communities as a Monument in State Care.

Coleraine 8. traces of the vikings

8/12/2025

Though they suffered from numerous raids, and the Annals record the Vikings wintering in Lough Neagh between 839 and 841, unlike Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Galway, there were no permanent Viking settlements in the Coleraine area. A possible Viking boat burial site was, however, discovered in 1815 in Ballywillin bog in Portrush. This was described in a newspaper as follows: a clinker-built boat "in a mound c.40ft in diameter, composed of stones & clay...about 15 perches from the shore of the bog...it is 6 or 8 feet in height". Another account describes a quantity of gravel ballast in the base of the boat "and a large flat stone for a hearth at one end of her, and a quantity of ashes". The discovery is also recorded several years later in the OS Memoirs as "the keel of a ship found in Ballywillin bog...the boat had no nails and was put together with pegs of wood". it is understood that the boat was broken up for the timber upon discovery. This drawing is of the excavation of the Oseberg Viking boat burial in Norway. It is tantalising to wonder what the Portrush boat might have looked like.

Coleraine 7. Camus High Cross.

6/12/2025

St Patrick was famously enslaved on the slopes of Slemish Mountain in the fifth century, but he is said to have returned here as a missionary and founded a church at Coleraine and a monastery along the Bann. Camus, 4 miles south of Coleraine, is traditionally thought to have been the site of the monastery. There is little to see here today. It was reputedly sacked by the Vikings in 920 and in a later era built over by Camus House. One remnant to survive, however, is the base of a high cross. These crosses were originally painted in bright colours and erected within monastic sites from the 9th century and depict biblical scenes. The cross itself has had a ‘colourful’ history, being used as a gatepost for years before being re-erected within its graveyard at the start of the 20th century. It is now a fine peaceful site overlooking the river with a wooded island in the centre.

Coleraine 6. Dunmull Hillfort

4/12/2025

Dunmull hill fort , sitting up on the flat plane to the south east of Portrush began as a defended settlement in Neolithic times and was occupied again in the Iron Age and then, around AD 600, it became the main royal site for the territory around Coleraine and to the south that was known as Eilne. Because of its defensive position it was used again in later centuries. it is traditionally understood to be a pre- C12th stronghold of the O'Flynns. References to a chair and footprint stone in some sources suggest that it was an inaugural site. It is understood that it was used as a defensive encampment position by the Lagan army in 1649 and as a mass site during penal times. Its last major public use is understood to have been for religious rallies during the Ulster Revival of 1859.

Coleraine 5. The giant's sconce

1/12/2025

Closer in time we can find the remnants of those who lived here in recorded eras. There are a number of raths or circular earthen fortifications, often used as individual occupation sites and some as the power bases of local kings and strong men. One of the most dramatic of these structures is the Giant’s Sconce at the boundary of Coleraine and Limavady, just off the Windyhill Road. This fortified place has fine views out across the flat plateau below towards Slemish mountain.
To the rear, a sheer cliff, to the front, the ramparts constructed of unmortared stone curved to protect the internal area. Such stone structures are known as cashels.
In this early period the full area was part of the territory of the Ulaid, who gave their name to ‘Ulster’, but over the centuries they were defeated and pushed eastwards across the Bann by the Cenel Eoghan. Two battles between them are said to have occurred at the Giant’s Sconce in 628 and 681AD.

coleraine 4. Lissanduff Earthworks

29/11/2025

Here at Portballintrae, where the River Bush approaches the sea, are two large earthworks each with a central circular enclosure and surrounding bank. It is likely that they were used for a ritual function. Oral tradition suggests that there was an important prehistorical assembly place in this area called ‘Oenach tuaith’- The Assembly of the People of the North.

Coleraine 3. the Daff stone.

26/11/2025

Another Neolithic site in the area is the Daff Stone near Moneydig crossroads, four miles west of Garvagh. This looks like a dolmen with a huge cap stone, but is in fact a grass covered cairn with a chamber under the huge cap. Now largely filled up with rubbish, a visitor in 1904 (Buick) described markings on one of the seven uprights forming the chamber. These can't be seen today.

Coleraine 2. - the White Wife

25/11/2025

Closer in time, the Neolitic Period (c4,000 BC), left a number of marks across the Coleraine area. The 'White Wife' at Canalridge to the southwest of Portrush, sits on relatively high ground overlooking the sea and is thought to date from this time. Made from two basalt stones and historically whitewashed, it forms the silhouette of a 18-19th century woman in a long coat. The 'head' is currently cemented to the 'body' and there is a concrete foundation, suggesting conservation work in not too distant past.

Coleraine 1. Mount sandel

24/11/2025

Coleraine is home to the earliest human settlement found to date on the island of Ireland. Mount Sandel on a small hill above rapids on the River Bann, was excavated in the 1970’s and found to contain evidence of huts, wild pigs, hazelnuts, birds and fishing dating to 7700BC. Its hunter gatherer occupants clearly enjoyed the fruits of the nearby river, something which attracted later inhabitants as well. There is little to see here today of this history – apart from a fine forest, and a small dip in the ground, though this is probably not unlike what existed around this site at that time

Apple Flagship store, washington DC.

30/3/2025

Formerly the Washington central library funded by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1903, this building situated on the centre of one of the city's 'squares' (Mt Vernon Sq) at a planned intersection between diagonal streets and the city's street grid, was taken on and renovated by Foster and Partners for Apple in 2019. The library and a small museum remain on the first floor and the ground floor now houses the Apple Store. This is furnished in the minimalist corporate style of Apple and has a restrained elegance. Here, however, the Beaux Arts columns and deign decoration ion the historic building has been retained throughout. To the rear, opposite the entrance door, a double height modern space is the focus of the new store and described as a 'forum'; with soft cube furnishings and a large screen that can be used for presentations. No expense was spared in this $30m renovation which is the pinnacle of the transformation of this once run down area over the past ten years. Much of this transformation can be attributed to the hard work of the community run 'Shaw Main Streets' (www.shawmainstreets.org) who have spearheaded regeneration efforts in the surrounding area.