GARVAGH

Daniel Kirkpatrick

GARVAGH Heritage Profile

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By

Daniel Kirkpatrick

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By | Compiled 2026-05-05 | N08000419
141 historic sites 11 scheduled monuments 43 listed buildings 6 archaeological periods

GARVAGH covers 229.1 km² in Northern Ireland. With 141 historic sites and 11 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 91st percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 43 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 73rd percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 56.5 recorded sites — the 93rd 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 6 archaeological periods, around the NI median for chronological depth.

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

Heritage at a glance

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

141
Historic sites
94th percentile
11
Scheduled monuments
86th percentile
43
Listed buildings
73rd percentile
0.85
Sites per km²

Population context

15
Persons per km²
12th percentile
56.5
Sites per 1,000 residents
93rd percentile
3,452
Total residents (2021)

The recorded heritage of GARVAGH

Of the 141 historic sites recorded, the most common are Enclosure (29, 21% of historic sites), Rath (16), and Rath (O.S. Memoir Site, Unlocated) (4). For Enclosures, this is placing the ward in the top 3% nationally for this type. For Raths, this is the 81st percentile across NI wards that record this type. Across the ward's 229.1 km², this gives a recorded density of 0.85 sites per km² (all heritage types combined). Scheduled monuments are distributed across approximately 0.04° of latitude and 0.06° of longitude within the ward, indicating dispersed rather than clustered placement.

Most common monument types

TypeCountDescription
Enclosure 29 —
Rath 16 —
Rath (o.s. Memoir Site, Unlocated) 4 —

Chronological distribution

Mesolithic
38
Early Bronze Age
3
Iron Age
39
Early Medieval
44
Medieval
2
Post Medieval
3
Unknown
12

Terrain and environment

A mean elevation of 161m places this ward in the top 10% of NI wards by altitude, but the ward reaches 376m at its highest point — a vertical span of more than 214m within its boundary, indicating significant topographic diversity. Mean slope is 4.5° (60th percentile across NI), giving moderately undulating terrain. The Topographic Wetness Index of 10.2 (37th NI percentile) indicates moderate drainage, balanced between upland shedding and lowland accumulation. The land cover is dominated by improved grassland (81%) and woodland (17%). In overall character, this is elevated but relatively gentle terrain — typical of plateau country, with land use dominated by improved grassland.

Terrain measurements

Mean elevation161.2 m 91st pct
Max elevation376.4 m 89th pct
Mean slope4.5° 60th pct
Wetness index (TWI)10.20 37th pct
Grassland80.8% 83rd pct
Woodland16.9% 48th pct
Urban land1.3% 12th pct

Where this ward sits in NI

Elevation
91st
Slope
60th
Drainage
37th
Grassland
83rd
Woodland
48th

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 25% of the ward. Peat-bound ground preserves organic archaeological material that would not survive on aerated mineral soils. Bedrock composition is uniform (complexity index 0.36), 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 coverage24.6%
Bedrock complexity0.36

Placename evidence

The combined OSNI, Logainm NI, and GeoNames sources record 44 placenames for this ward. Diagnostic heritage strata identified within these are: 3 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-)3 names

Scheduled monuments in GARVAGH

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
Bivallate Rath: Farrantemple FortBivallate Rath: Farrantemple FortIron Age
Rath: LisatinnyRath: LisatinnyEarly Medieval
RathRathEarly Medieval
Rath and attached enclosureRath And Attached EnclosureIron Age
Stone circle or cairn: Tamney CromlechStone Circle Or Cairn: Tamney CromlechNeolithic
Cairn: Slaght Averty or Dwarf's GraveCairn: Slaght Averty Or Dwarf'S GraveEarly Bronze Age
RathRathEarly Medieval
RathRathEarly Medieval

Recorded historic sites

NamePeriodType
A.P. SITE – cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – oval cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – small, circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
BARROWMesolithicRitual/Funerary
BATTLE SITE: BATTLE OF RAVELIN'S HILL, 1641Post-MedievalUnknown
BIVALLATE RATH: FARRANTEMPLE COURTEarly MedievalRitual/Funerary
BURIAL GROUND (unlocated)UnknownRitual/Funerary
BURIAL GROUND: DRUMSLADHE (O.S. memoir site, unlocated)UnknownRitual/Funerary
BURIAL GROUND: GARAHAYNALANIV – garden of the infants (O.S. memoir site, unlocated)UnknownRitual/Funerary
BURNT MOUNDEarly Bronze AgeAgriculture

Listed buildings in GARVAGH

Address / NameGradePeriod
St Paul's Church Church of Errigal Garvagh Co. Londonderry BT51 5AEB21650 – 1699
Ulster Bank 10 Main Street Garvagh Co. Londonderry BT51 5ADB21860 – 1879
Moyletra Parish Church Kurin Road Garvagh Co. LondonderryB11780 – 1799
St Mary's Roman Catholic Church Grove Road Craigavole Garvagh Co. LondonderryB21840 – 1859
St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church Brockaghboy Garvagh Co. LondonderryB11860 – 1879
36 Glen Road Garvagh Co. Londonderry BT51 5DBB11840 – 1859
Garvagh High School 140 Main Street Garvagh Co. Londonderry BT51 5AEB11940 – 1959
Ballynameen Bridge Carnhill Road Garvagh Coleraine Co Londonderry BT51B21840 – 1859
Killyvally Bridge Bridge Street Garvagh Coleraine Co Londonderry BT51B21800 – 1819
Errigal Bridge Temple Rd Garvagh Coleraine Co Londonderry BT51B21800 – 1819

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.