Malachy Conway
Survey Archaeologist, Northern Ireland
My role is to develop our knowledge of the historic environment on National Trust landholding in Northern Ireland. I provide the region with support and expertise in archaeology, serving our properties and liaising with my colleagues across the Trust, in England and Wales.
I started in July 2003 and since then have spent a lot of time compiling and maintaining our Sites and Monuments Record. Work on compiling the SMR for Northern Ireland has revealed over 800 archaeological sites ranging in date and type from Mesolithic flint scatters, datable to around 7000BC, to pillboxes and firing ranges from the second world war!
I get a lot of internal and external requests for archaeological and historic environment information. Another key aspect of the job is to raise awareness of archaeology, and its value in understanding our heritage and culture, within the wider community.
I brought with me to the National Trust over 15 years of professional experience in archaeology, having worked for a variety of commercial firms, government agencies and academic institutions. I was involved in survey and excavation at threatened archaeological sites from different historical periods. My particular interest is in prehistoric rural settlement, but I have built up expertise across the spectrum of Irish history since working for the Trust!
At a push, I would say my top five National Trust archaeology sites in Northern Ireland are… 1. Dunseverick Castle, County Antrim
A fortified promontory site established around 500BC. It was plundered by the Danes in 870 and 924. The site became a manorial centre of the Earls of Ulster from the 13th-century and was apparently destroyed by Cromwell's troops around the 1650's. Remains consist of a partly collapsed two-storey tower (possibly a gate tower) at the SE tail of the promontory.
© NT / Scott Peckins
2. Castle Carra, Cushendun, County Antrim
A prominent tower house of late 13th or 14th-century date, built over a Mesolithic flint working site. Abandoned within a century or so of its construction, the tower house was subsequently used as an infants' cemetery at the end of the medieval period. Close by to the site lies a number of Early Bronze Age Standing Stones.
3. Whitepark Bay, County Antrim
Coastal beach with sand dunes containing an early Bronze Age barrow or tumulus. The property has over the years revealed numerous hut sites and settlement evidence of later Neolithic or Bronze Age date, including collections of prehistoric flint tools.
© NT / Scott Peckins
4. Castle Ward, County Down
The earliest archaeological remain on the estate is a possible late Neolithic portal tomb. The property was first established around 1570 with the construction of a fortified tower house at Old Castle Ward in 1590. Castle Ward is perhaps best known for its 18th century buildings particularly the mansion house, unique in Ireland as having one facade classical and the other gothic.
5. Crom, County Fermanagh
Nestled in the Fermanagh lakelands, this estate has revealed evidence of prehistoric settlement and other activities, though as a demesne it was established in the 17th-century. The original plantation castle, constructed in 1611, withstood two Jacobite sieges in 1689, but after a fire in 1764 was turned into a mock gothic ruin within an outstanding landscaped park.
© NTPL / Joe Cornish
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