AGHADOWEY

Daniel Kirkpatrick

AGHADOWEY Heritage Profile

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By

Daniel Kirkpatrick

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By | Compiled 2026-05-05 | N08000401
98 historic sites 15 scheduled monuments 66 listed buildings 8 archaeological periods

AGHADOWEY covers 360.8 km² in Northern Ireland. With 98 historic sites and 15 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 89th percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 66 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 85th percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 51.9 recorded sites — the 91st percentile across NI wards (a measure of heritage density relative to current population). Dated archaeological evidence runs from the Mesolithic through to the Modern period, spanning 8 archaeological periods, placing the ward in the 90th percentile NI-wide for chronological depth.

Detailed boundary map of AGHADOWEY ward, Causeway Coast and Glens
AGHADOWEY boundary detail
Regional context map showing AGHADOWEY ward within Causeway Coast and Glens
AGHADOWEY in regional context

Heritage at a glance

Percentile rankings throughout this profile compare each ward only against the other 461 Northern Ireland wards.

98
Historic sites
89th percentile
15
Scheduled monuments
92nd percentile
66
Listed buildings
85th percentile
0.50
Sites per km²

Population context

10
Persons per km²
5th percentile
51.9
Sites per 1,000 residents
91st percentile
3,447
Total residents (2021)

The recorded heritage of AGHADOWEY

Of the 98 historic sites recorded, the most common are Enclosure (O.S. Memoir Site, Unlocated) (7, 7% of historic sites), Enclosure (6), and Souterrain (O.S. Memoir Site, Unlocated) (5). For Enclosure (O.S. Memoir Site, Unlocated)s, this is the 33rd percentile among NI wards that record this type. For Enclosures, this is the 53rd percentile among NI wards that record this type. Across the ward's 360.8 km², this gives a recorded density of 0.50 sites per km² (all heritage types combined). Scheduled monuments are distributed across approximately 0.09° of latitude and 0.20° of longitude within the ward, indicating dispersed rather than clustered placement.

Most common monument types

TypeCountDescription
Enclosure (o.s. Memoir Site, Unlocated) 7 —
Enclosure 6 —
Souterrain (o.s. Memoir Site, Unlocated) 5 —

Chronological distribution

Mesolithic
20
Early Bronze Age
5
Middle Late Bronze Age
2
Iron Age
22
Early Medieval
23
Medieval
3
Post Medieval
5
Modern
3
Unknown
15

Terrain and environment

With a mean elevation of 105m, this ward sits above the NI median (75th percentile), but the ward reaches 371m at its highest point — a vertical span of more than 265m within its boundary, indicating significant topographic diversity. Mean slope is 3.7° (39th percentile across NI), giving moderately undulating terrain. The Topographic Wetness Index of 10.7 (66th NI percentile) indicates moderate drainage, balanced between upland shedding and lowland accumulation. The land cover is dominated by improved grassland (72%) and woodland (23%). In overall character, this is elevated but relatively gentle terrain — typical of plateau country, with land use dominated by improved grassland.

Terrain measurements

Mean elevation105.3 m 75th pct
Max elevation370.5 m 88th pct
Mean slope3.7° 40th pct
Wetness index (TWI)10.73 67th pct
Grassland72.5% 68th pct
Woodland23.4% 68th pct
Cropland2.6% 65th pct

Where this ward sits in NI

Elevation
75th
Slope
40th
Drainage
67th
Grassland
68th
Woodland
68th

Geology and preservation

The dominant bedrock formed during the Cainozoic era (Palaeogene period). Relatively young rock formed in the last 66 million years. In Ulster, Cainozoic basalt — the lava that created the Antrim Plateau and Giant's Causeway — dominates much of the eastern landscape. Peat covers 39% of the ward — a substantial share of the surface, characteristic of upland blanket-bog or poorly-drained ground. Where archaeological features lie beneath peat, they are typically far better preserved than on aerated mineral soils: organic materials such as wood, leather, and even textiles can survive thousands of years sealed within waterlogged peat. Bedrock composition is uniform (complexity index 0.35), with a single dominant geological unit underlying most of the ward. A uniform geology narrows the natural lithic-resource base available to past inhabitants.

Bedrock eraCainozoic
Bedrock periodPalaeogene
Surface depositsPeat
Peat coverage38.6%
Bedrock complexity0.35

Placename evidence

The combined OSNI, Logainm NI, and GeoNames sources record 117 placenames for this ward. Diagnostic heritage strata identified within these are: 4 pre-Christian defensive (rath-, dún-, lios-, caiseal-), 6 ecclesiastical (cill-, teampall-, mainistir-, díseart-), and 1 Plantation-era (17th c English/Scots settlement names). Note: Irish-language (name_ga) forms are recorded for roughly half of NI placenames in the combined sources, so anglicised forms whose Irish original could belong to multiple categories may be misclassified.

Placename categories

Ecclesiastical (kil-, temple-, monaster-)6 names
Pre-Christian Defensive (rath-, dun-, lis-)4 names
Plantation Era1 name

Scheduled monuments in AGHADOWEY

Scheduled monuments are sites legally protected under the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, designated by the Historic Environment Division (HED).

MonumentTypePeriod
Agivey Church, holestone and fontAgivey Church, Holestone And FontUnknown
Sweat HouseSweat HouseUnknown
RathRathEarly Medieval
GraveyardGraveyardUnknown
Sweat HouseSweat HouseUnknown
RathRathEarly Medieval
Cross and BullaunCross And BullaunUnknown
Plantation Village Site: AgiveyPlantation Village Site: AgiveyUnknown

Recorded historic sites

NamePeriodType
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular enclosureIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – oval cropmarkUnknownUnknown
Agivey Historic SettlementPost-MedievalDomestic
BARROWEarly Bronze AgeRitual/Funerary
BATTLE SITE, 1641Post-MedievalUnknown
BAWN & TOWER HOUSE: AGHADOWEY CASTLEMedievalDefence
BURIALMesolithicRitual/Funerary

Listed buildings in AGHADOWEY

Address / NameGradePeriod
Aghadowey Presbyterian Church Ardreagh Road Coleraine Co. Londonderry BT51 4DNB21820 – 1839
Our Lady of the Assumption 31 Cullycapple Road Coleraine Co. Londonderry BT51 4ARB11880 – 1899
Cullycapple House 19 Cullycapple Road Aghadowey Coleraine Co. Londonderry BT51 4ARB11840 – 1859
Fairlea 6 Cullycapple Road Aghadowey Coleraine Co. Londonderry BT51 4ARB11840 – 1859
Wigmore House 10 Ballydevitt Road Coleraine Co. Londonderry BT51 4DRB11800 – 1819
Rushbrook House 15 Craigmore Road Aghadowey Coleraine Co. Londonderry BT51 4EXB21800 – 1819
52 Boleran Road Glenkeen Garvagh Co. Londonderry BT51 5EGB21800 – 1819
Blackheath House 112 Killeague Road Garvagh Coleraine Co. Londonderry BT51 4HHB21780 – 1799
Agivey Bridge Glenkeen Road Agadowey Coleraine Co Londonderry BT51B21840 – 1859
Ballybritain Bridge Lisnamuck Road Aghadowey Coleraine Co Londonderry BT51B21860 – 1879

Further reading

Discover more in Causeway Coast and Glens

Grounding History report mockup

Want a deeper view?

Grounding History: 10 Maps of Northern Ireland’s Past

A spatial history report bringing together analysis of all 462 wards into one place through 10 high-quality maps — covering monument density, archaeological periods, placename heritage, terrain, wetland, and the historic landscape at first survey.

View the report — £12.99

About this profile

What is a ward?

A ward is the smallest electoral and statistical geography used by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). The boundaries used here are the 2014 NISRA / OSNI Wards (462 across Northern Ireland), each typically covering 1-700 km² and a population of a few thousand. Wards do not align with parishes, townlands, or any historic administrative unit — they are a modern statistical convenience, used here only as a fixed spatial frame within which to summarise heritage records.

What counts as a site?

Three distinct heritage record types are reported separately, not combined: (1) Historic Sites — entries in the Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record (NISMR), the inventory of recorded archaeological sites and findspots, dated from prehistoric to early-modern; (2) Scheduled Monuments — sites legally protected under the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (NI) Order 1995 and maintained by the Historic Environment Division (HED); (3) Listed Buildings — buildings of architectural or historic interest protected under the Planning Act (NI) 2011 and graded A, B+, B1, B2, or Record-Only by HED. A site appearing in more than one register is counted in each register independently.

Editorial principles

These ward profiles describe evidence, not history. They report what is recorded, not what occurred. Where the data is ambiguous, we say so. We do not infer historical processes — population movements, settlement expansion, periods of decline — from patterns in the record. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: in Northern Ireland, where antiquarian survey was uneven and modern excavation is geographically biased, a gap in the record almost always reflects the limits of recording rather than a genuine historical absence. We mark such gaps explicitly where they appear in the data.

Limits of coverage and known caveats

Several caveats apply to every ward profile: (1) NISMR coverage is uneven across NI — some areas (notably parts of the south-east and the Belfast urban fringe) have been more intensively surveyed than others, so a low recorded site count does not reliably indicate a low past density of activity; (2) period attributions in NISMR are often 'Unknown', and chronological breakdowns reported here reflect only the dated subset; (3) placename classification depends on the Irish-language form (name_ga), which is recorded for approximately 50% of NI placenames in the combined sources, so ecclesiastical and pre-Christian counts may be understated where anglicised forms remain unparsed; (4) terrain percentile ranks compare each ward only to the other 461 NI wards; they are not absolute thresholds. For absence-dominant land cover categories (wetland, water, cropland), percentile ranks are suppressed below 1% raw value, since the ranking of zero-value wards is not meaningful.

Data sources (11)
Spotted an error? This dataset is updated continuously. Email contact@danielkirkpatrick.co.uk with corrections, missing records, or suggestions for improvement.