CLADY

Daniel Kirkpatrick

CLADY Heritage Profile

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By

Daniel Kirkpatrick

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By | Compiled 2026-05-05 | N08000113
201 historic sites 19 scheduled monuments 16 listed buildings 7 archaeological periods

CLADY covers 212.8 km² in Northern Ireland. With 201 historic sites and 19 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 95th percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 16 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 44th percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 61.8 recorded sites — the 95th 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 7 archaeological periods, placing the ward in the 79th percentile NI-wide for chronological depth.

Detailed boundary map of CLADY ward, Antrim and Newtownabbey
CLADY boundary detail
Regional context map showing CLADY ward within Antrim and Newtownabbey
CLADY in regional context

Heritage at a glance

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

201
Historic sites
97th percentile
19
Scheduled monuments
95th percentile
16
Listed buildings
44th percentile
1.11
Sites per km²

Population context

18
Persons per km²
17th percentile
61.8
Sites per 1,000 residents
95th percentile
3,818
Total residents (2021)

The recorded heritage of CLADY

Of the 201 historic sites recorded, the most common are Enclosure (Chart) (37, 18% of historic sites), Rath (28), and Enclosure (27). For Enclosure (Chart)s, this is the 50th percentile among NI wards that record this type. For Raths, this is placing the ward in the top 5% nationally for this type. Across the ward's 212.8 km², this gives a recorded density of 1.11 sites per km² (all heritage types combined). Scheduled monuments are distributed across approximately 0.07° of latitude and 0.20° of longitude within the ward, indicating dispersed rather than clustered placement.

Most common monument types

TypeCountDescription
Enclosure (chart) 37 —
Rath 28 —
Enclosure 27 —

Chronological distribution

Mesolithic
16
Early Bronze Age
4
Middle Late Bronze Age
1
Iron Age
79
Early Medieval
69
Medieval
8
Modern
3
Unknown
21

Terrain and environment

With a mean elevation of 158m, this ward sits above the NI median (88th percentile), but the ward reaches 454m at its highest point — a vertical span of more than 296m within its boundary, indicating significant topographic diversity. Mean slope is 3.3° (24th percentile across NI), giving moderately undulating terrain. The Topographic Wetness Index of 10.9 (76th NI percentile) indicates moderate drainage, balanced between upland shedding and lowland accumulation. The land cover is dominated by improved grassland (90%) and woodland (6%). In overall character, this is elevated but relatively gentle terrain — typical of plateau country, with land use dominated by improved grassland.

Terrain measurements

Mean elevation157.7 m 89th pct
Max elevation453.7 m 94th pct
Mean slope3.3° 25th pct
Wetness index (TWI)10.89 76th pct
Grassland90.2% 99th pct
Woodland6.2% 4th pct
Cropland1.5% 56th pct
Urban land2.1% 27th pct

Where this ward sits in NI

Elevation
89th
Slope
25th
Drainage
76th
Grassland
99th
Woodland
4th

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. Bedrock composition is uniform (complexity index 0.00), 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 depositsTill
Peat coverage0.0%
Bedrock complexity0.00

Placename evidence

The combined OSNI, Logainm NI, and GeoNames sources record 26 placenames for this ward. Diagnostic heritage strata identified within these are: 2 pre-Christian defensive (rath-, dún-, lios-, caiseal-) and 1 ecclesiastical (cill-, teampall-, mainistir-, díseart-). 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-)1 name
Pre-Christian Defensive (rath-, dun-, lis-)2 names

Scheduled monuments in CLADY

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
Motte: Barginnis MountMotte: Barginnis MountMedieval
Camlin (Crumlin) ChurchCamlin (Crumlin) ChurchUnknown
Bivallate RathBivallate RathIron Age
Bivallate RathBivallate RathIron Age
FortsFortsUnknown
Raised rath or motteRaised Rath Or MotteEarly Medieval
RathRathEarly Medieval
MoundMoundUnknown

Recorded historic sites

NamePeriodType
A.P. SITE – 2 circular enclosuresUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkEarly MedievalUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular enclosureIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular enclosureIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular enclosureIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – complex of cropmarks – Field System?Middle-Late Bronze AgeAgriculture
A.P. SITE – elliptical cropmarkUnknownUnknown

Listed buildings in CLADY

Address / NameGradePeriod
The Shaw Mausoleum Carmavy Graveyard Carmavy Road Nutts Corner Crumlin Co AntrimB21760 – 1779
Larkhill 10 Garlandstown Road Crumlin Co Antrim BT29 4HQB11860 – 1879
The Stewart Mausoleum, Carmavy Graveyard, Carmavy Road, Nutts Corner, Crumlin, Co AntrimB21800 – 1819
The Ferguson Mausoleum, Carmavy Graveyard, Carmavy Road, Nutts Corner, Crumlin, Co AntrimB21800 – 1819
Thompson’s Bridge Carnaghliss Road Dundrod Crumlin County AntrimRecord Only—
Umgall Church Cemetery Umgall Road Ballyclare Co. AntrimRecord Only1800 – 1819
House at 6 Ballysculty Road Muckamore Antrim Co Antrim BT41 4QURecord Only1860 – 1879
Clady Bridge Loanends Road Nutts Corner Crumlin Co AntrimRecord Only1800 – 1819
Carmavy Graveyard Carmavy Road Nutts Corner Crumlin Co AntrimRecord Only1600 – 1649
Bridge over Clady Water Printshop Road Nutts Corner Crumlin Co AntrimRecord Only1800 – 1819

Further reading

Discover more in Antrim and Newtownabbey

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.