ALTAHULLION covers 194.7 km² in Northern Ireland. With 40 historic sites and 4 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 69th percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 51 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 79th percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 29.8 recorded sites — the 76th percentile across NI wards (a measure of heritage density relative to current population). Dated archaeological evidence runs from the Mesolithic through to the Post-Medieval period, spanning 5 archaeological periods, around the NI median for chronological depth.
Heritage at a glance
Percentile rankings throughout this profile compare each ward only against the other 461 Northern Ireland wards.
Population context
The recorded heritage of ALTAHULLION
Of the 40 historic sites recorded, the most common are Enclosure (6, 15% of historic sites), A.P. Site – Circular Cropmark (2), and Two Enclosures Or Tree Rings (1). For Enclosures, this is the 53rd percentile among NI wards that record this type. For A.P. Site – Circular Cropmarks, this is the 41st percentile among NI wards that record this type. Across the ward's 194.7 km², this gives a recorded density of 0.49 sites per km² (all heritage types combined). Scheduled monuments are distributed across approximately 0.09° of latitude and 0.04° of longitude within the ward, indicating dispersed rather than clustered placement. Note: 35% of historic site records carry an 'Unknown' period attribution and cannot be placed chronologically; the chronological breakdown reported below reflects only the dated subset.
Most common monument types
| Type | Count | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Enclosure | 6 | — |
| A.p. Site – Circular Cropmark | 2 | — |
| Two Enclosures Or Tree Rings | 1 | — |
Chronological distribution
Note: 35% of historic site records carry an ‘Unknown’ period attribution. The chronological breakdown above reflects only the dated subset.
Terrain and environment
With a mean elevation of 116m, this ward sits above the NI median (79th percentile), with a maximum of 276m giving the ward meaningful vertical relief. Mean slope is 3.4° (30th percentile across NI), giving moderately undulating terrain. The Topographic Wetness Index of 10.7 (67th NI percentile) indicates moderate drainage, balanced between upland shedding and lowland accumulation. The land-cover mosaic combines improved grassland (80%), woodland (12%), and arable farmland (7%), giving a mixed agricultural and semi-natural landscape. In overall character, this is elevated but relatively gentle terrain — typical of plateau country, with land use dominated by improved grassland.
Terrain measurements
Where this ward sits in NI
Geology and preservation
The dominant bedrock formed during the Neoproterozoic era (Carboniferous period). Late Pre-Cambrian rock laid down before the Cambrian explosion of life — a stable, long-eroded basement geology. Peat covers 18% of the ward. Peat-bound ground preserves organic archaeological material that would not survive on aerated mineral soils. Bedrock composition is moderately varied (complexity index 0.67), with two or three geological units present within the ward boundary.
Placename evidence
The combined OSNI, Logainm NI, and GeoNames sources record 48 placenames for this ward. Of those, 5 fall into the ecclesiastical category (cill-, teampall-, mainistir-, díseart-) — the only diagnostic heritage stratum identified beyond the generic Gaelic landscape substrate. 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
Scheduled monuments in ALTAHULLION
Scheduled monuments are sites legally protected under the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, designated by the Historic Environment Division (HED).
| Monument | Type | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Castle (site): O Cahan's Castle | Castle (Site): O Cahan'S Castle | Unknown |
| Church, graveyard and tomb (area surrounding the state care monument) | Church, Graveyard And Tomb (Area Surrounding The State Care Monument) | Unknown |
| Rath: Drum Fort or Larry's Fort (area surrounding the state care monument) | Rath: Drum Fort Or Larry'S Fort (Area Surrounding The State Care Monument) | Early Medieval |
| Drumceatt Mound/Daisy Hill – possible assembly site | Drumceatt Mound/Daisy Hill – Possible Assembly Site | Unknown |
Recorded historic sites
| Name | Period | Type |
|---|---|---|
| A.P. SITE – cropmark | Unknown | Unknown |
| A.P. SITE – circular cropmark | Unknown | Unknown |
| A.P. SITE – circular cropmark | Unknown | Unknown |
| A.P. SITE – circular cropmark & ?field boundaries | Unknown | Unknown |
| A.P. SITE – oval cropmark | Unknown | Unknown |
| BATTLE SITE, 1641 | Post-Medieval | Unknown |
| BULLAUN | Unknown | Unknown |
| CASTLE & BAWN (site of): O'CAHAN'S CASTLE | Medieval | Defence |
| CASTLE (O.S. memoir site, unlocated) | Post-Medieval | Defence |
| CHURCH: KIRK HILL | Early Medieval | Religious |
Listed buildings in ALTAHULLION
| Address / Name | Grade | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Gate Lodges Pellipar Estate Ballyquin Road Dungiven Co Londonderry | B1 | 1780 – 1799 |
| Largy County Primary School 130 Drumrane Road Ballykelly Co Londonderry BT49 9LQ | B1 | 1840 – 1859 |
| Dogleap Powerhouse Roe Valley Country Park 43 Dogleap Road Largy Limavady Co Londonderry BT49 9NN | B+ | 1880 – 1899 |
| Largy Bridge Dogleap Road Ballykelly Co Londonderry BT49 9NN | B2 | 1820 – 1839 |
| South Watch Tower Roe Green Roe Valley Country Park Largy Limavady Co Londonderry | B2 | 1760 – 1779 |
| Weaving Shed Museum Roe Valley Country Park Dogleap Road Largy Limavady Co Londonderry BT49 9NN | B2 | 1800 – 1819 |
| St Eugenius Church (C of I) Drumrane Road Dungiven Co Londonderry BT47 4RG | B1 | 1820 – 1839 |
| St Mary’s Church (RC) Gortnahey Road Dungiven Co Londonderry BT47 4PY | Record Only | 1820 – 1839 |
| Dwelling (aka Youth Hostel) Mill Lane Derrylane Dungiven Co Londonderry | B2 | 1800 – 1819 |
| Bovevagh Presbyterian Church Ballyquin Road Camnish Dungiven Co Londonderry | B2 | 1760 – 1779 |
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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.
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)
- Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record (NISMR) https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/articles/nismr-public-mapviewer
- HED Scheduled Monuments Dataset https://www.opendatani.gov.uk/@historic-environment-division/scheduled-monuments-northern-ireland
- HED Historic Buildings Record https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/topics/historic-environment/listed-buildings
- OSNI OS Open Names (Northern Ireland) https://www.opendatani.gov.uk/@ordnance-survey-of-northern-ireland/osni-open-data—50k-gazetteer
- Logainm — Placenames Database of Ireland https://www.logainm.ie/
- GeoNames https://www.geonames.org/
- Census 2021 (Northern Ireland) https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/2021-census
- OSNI Open Data — Largescale Boundaries https://www.opendatani.gov.uk/@ordnance-survey-of-northern-ireland/osni-open-data-largescale-boundaries-wards-2012
- Copernicus GLO-30 DEM https://spacedata.copernicus.eu/collections/copernicus-digital-elevation-model
- ESA WorldCover https://esa-worldcover.org/
- GSNI 1:250,000 Geology https://www.bgs.ac.uk/geological-data/maps/