CENTRAL

Daniel Kirkpatrick

CENTRAL Heritage Profile

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By

Daniel Kirkpatrick

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By | Compiled 2026-05-05 | N08000315
10 historic sites 2 scheduled monuments 507 listed buildings 5 archaeological periods

CENTRAL covers 8.3 km² in Northern Ireland. With 10 historic sites and 2 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 99th percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 507 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 100th percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 40.3 recorded sites — the 85th 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 5 archaeological periods, around the NI median for chronological depth.

Detailed boundary map of CENTRAL ward, Belfast
CENTRAL boundary detail
Regional context map showing CENTRAL ward within Belfast
CENTRAL in regional context

Heritage at a glance

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

10
Historic sites
46th percentile
2
Scheduled monuments
53rd percentile
507
Listed buildings
100th percentile
62.18
Sites per km²

Population context

1541
Persons per km²
93rd percentile
40.3
Sites per 1,000 residents
85th percentile
12,868
Total residents (2021)

The recorded heritage of CENTRAL

Of the 10 historic sites recorded, the most common are Medieval & Earlier Church Site: Chapel Of The Ford (1, 10% of historic sites), C17Th Castle: Belfast Castle (1), and Settlement Site – River Ford (1). For Medieval & Earlier Church Site: Chapel Of The Fords, this is the 0th percentile across NI wards that record this type. For C17Th Castle: Belfast Castles, this is the 0th percentile across NI wards that record this type. Across the ward's 8.3 km², this gives a recorded density of 62.53 sites per km² (all heritage types combined).

Most common monument types

TypeCountDescription
Medieval & Earlier Church Site: Chapel Of The Ford 1 —
C17th Castle: Belfast Castle 1 —
Settlement Site – River Ford 1 —

Chronological distribution

Mesolithic
2
Early Medieval
1
Medieval
2
Post Medieval
3
Modern
1
Unknown
1

Terrain and environment

A mean elevation of 8m places this ward among the lowest-lying in NI (1th percentile), reaching 39m at the highest point. Mean slope is 4.6° (62th percentile across NI), giving moderately undulating terrain. The Topographic Wetness Index of 10.3 (42th NI percentile) indicates moderate drainage, balanced between upland shedding and lowland accumulation. The land cover is dominated by urban land (83%) and woodland (8%).

Terrain measurements

Mean elevation7.8 m 1st pct
Max elevation39.4 m 7th pct
Mean slope4.6° 63rd pct
Wetness index (TWI)10.30 43rd pct
Grassland4.5% 2nd pct
Woodland7.8% 9th pct
Urban land83.2% 99th pct

Where this ward sits in NI

Elevation
1st
Slope
63rd
Drainage
43rd
Grassland
2nd
Woodland
9th

Geology and preservation

The dominant bedrock formed during the Palaeozoic era (Permian period). Ancient sedimentary or metamorphic rock dating to before the age of dinosaurs; the resulting landscape has been long-stable enough to host every period of human activity. Bedrock composition is uniform (complexity index 0.06), 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 eraPalaeozoic
Bedrock periodPermian
Surface depositsGlacial Sand And Gravel
Peat coverage0.0%
Bedrock complexity0.06

Placename evidence

The combined OSNI, Logainm NI, and GeoNames sources record 40 placenames for this ward. Of those, 2 fall into the Anglo-Norman category (12th-14th c medieval planted names) — 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

Anglo-Norman2 names

Scheduled monuments in CENTRAL

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
Lock on Lagan Navigation. 'McConnells Lock'Lock On Lagan Navigation. 'Mcconnells Lock'Unknown
GRAVEYARD & CHURCH SITE: FRIAR'S BUSH, CAPELLA DE KILPATRICKGraveyard & Church Site: Friar'S Bush, Capella De KilpatrickUnknown

Recorded historic sites

NamePeriodType
C17TH CASTLE: BELFAST CASTLEPost-MedievalDefence
C17th Ditch & Ramparts (cf ANT 061:018); Queen StPost-MedievalDefence
CANAL LOCK: McCONNELL'S LOCK (IHR02680-081-00)ModernTransport
CHURCH SITE: FRIAR'S BUSH, CAPELLA DE KILPATRICKMedievalReligious
Collection of finds (unstratified)MesolithicUnknown
HISTORIC SETTLEMENT: BELFASTMedievalDomestic
MEDIEVAL & EARLIER CHURCH SITE: CHAPEL OF THE FORDEarly MedievalReligious
POST-MEDIEVAL: SETTLEMENT SITEPost-MedievalDomestic
SETTLEMENT SITE – RIVER FORDUnknownTransport
Submerged LandscapeMesolithicUnknown

Listed buildings in CENTRAL

Address / NameGradePeriod
Klondyke Building Cromac Avenue Gasworks Building Park Lower Ormeau Road Belfast BT7 2JQB11880 – 1899
St Malachy's Church 24 Alfred Street Belfast Co. Antrim BT2 8ENA1840 – 1859
St Malachy's Presbytery 24 Alfred Street Belfast BT2 8ENB11860 – 1879
May Street Presbyterian Church May Street Belfast County Antrim BT1 4NUA1820 – 1839
Shaftsbury Square Hospital 116 Great Victoria Street Belfast County Antrim BT2 7BGB11860 – 1879
St. Mary Magdalene Donegall Pass Belfast County AntrimB11880 – 1899
Former Water Office 1 Donegall Square Belfast Co Antrim BT1 5AAB11860 – 1879
Royal Belfast Academical Institution College Square East Belfast Co Antrim BT1 6DLB+1800 – 1819
Christchurch Centre of Excellence College Square North Belfast Co. Antrim BT1 6ASB11820 – 1839
St George's Church 105 High Street Belfast Co Antrim BT1 2AGA1800 – 1819

Further reading

Discover more in Belfast

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.