Tuesday 22 December 2015

Back in Business!

It’s been a while since our last post but rest assured we have not been idle!

In between writing up the excavation reports for Monea and Derrywoone, we have been developing an education pack for Key Stages 2 & 3 and compiling a general reader booklet. The education pack is based around the three excavations that we have undertaken and is full of exciting exercises designed to stimulate discussion about the Plantation period.

Front cover of the Education Pack

The general reader booklet is a short summary of the excavations that have taken place at Servants Hill, Derrywoone Castle and Monea Castle. Both the education pack and general reader text will be available to download from the Dept of Culture, Arts and Leisure website in due course.

Front cover of the General Reader text

Due to the overwhelming success of our excavation open days and the positive feedback from our school visits and volunteers, we have also developed a series of workshops called ‘Hands on History’, which are aimed at community groups who wouldn’t necessarily get the opportunity to engage with their local heritage. These workshops will be delivered in North Belfast and Carrickfergus. 

The first event was held on Dec 15th at Art Ability on Agnes St, Belfast with groups from Fort William and Falls Road. We used some of the artefacts recovered from the Derrywoone and Monea excavations to describe how people during the Plantation might have lived and what sort of materials they used to construct their houses. We also used art to further interpret the artefacts. 

Launching the 'Hands on History' workshops at Art Ability with Brian McTeggart (DCAL)
and William Humphrey MLA (centre).

We would like to thank Gary Linton from Art Ability for inviting us to hold the workshop at their facility and Brian McTeggart (DCAL) and William Humphrey MLA for launching the workshops.


Gavin Donaghy (IAC) explains how the Raven maps have helped us to
discover new archaeological sites during this project.


Our next workshop will be in early January so stay tuned!