MAZE covers 51.8 km² in Northern Ireland. With 18 historic sites and 5 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 54th percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 41 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 71st percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 20.0 recorded sites — the 61st 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.
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 MAZE
Of the 18 historic sites recorded, the most common are Rath (2, 11% of historic sites), Enclosure (O.S. Memoir Site, Unlocated) (1), and A.P. Site – Circular Cropmark (1). For Raths, this is the 14th percentile across NI wards that record this type. For Enclosure (O.S. Memoir Site, Unlocated)s, this is the 0th percentile across NI wards that record this type. Across the ward's 51.8 km², this gives a recorded density of 1.24 sites per km² (all heritage types combined). Scheduled monuments occupy a compact area within the ward (less than 0.03° of geographic spread), indicating clustered placement.
Most common monument types
| Type | Count | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Rath | 2 | — |
| Enclosure (o.s. Memoir Site, Unlocated) | 1 | — |
| A.p. Site – Circular Cropmark | 1 | — |
Chronological distribution
Note: 17% of historic site records carry an ‘Unknown’ period attribution. The chronological breakdown above reflects only the dated subset.
Terrain and environment
Mean elevation of 52m sits around the NI median (41th percentile), reaching 132m at the highest point. The terrain is broadly flat, with a mean slope of 2.8° (13th percentile across NI). Drainage is poor across much of the ward — the Topographic Wetness Index of 11.2 sits in the 89th NI percentile, reflecting low-lying or impeded-drainage ground prone to waterlogging. The land-cover mosaic combines improved grassland (55%), arable farmland (22%), and woodland (14%), giving a mixed agricultural and semi-natural landscape.
Terrain measurements
Where this ward sits in NI
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 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 15 placenames for this ward. Of those, 1 fall into the pre-Christian defensive category (rath-, dún-, lios-, caiseal-) — 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 MAZE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Reach 11, Section 2 of Lagan Canal | Reach 11, Section 2 Of Lagan Canal | Post-Medieval |
| Reach 11, Section 3 of Lagan Canal | Reach 11, Section 3 Of Lagan Canal | Post-Medieval |
| Reach 11, Section 4 of Lagan Canal | Reach 11, Section 4 Of Lagan Canal | Post-Medieval |
| WW2 Defence heritage features surrounding hangars | Ww2 Defence Heritage Features Surrounding Hangars | Unknown |
| Pillbox in environs of hangars | Pillbox In Environs Of Hangars | Modern |
Recorded historic sites
| Name | Period | Type |
|---|---|---|
| A.P. SITE | Unknown | Unknown |
| A.P. SITE – BIVALLATE RATH? | Iron Age | Defence |
| A.P. SITE – RECTILINEAR ENCLOSURE | Iron Age | Unknown |
| A.P. SITE – circular cropmark | Unknown | Unknown |
| A.P. SITE – elliptical cropmark | Unknown | Unknown |
| BURNT MOUNDS (2) AND DOMESTIC/INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY | Mesolithic | Agriculture |
| ENCLOSURE (O.S. memoir site, unlocated) | Iron Age | Unknown |
| ENCLOSURE (RATH?) | Iron Age | Defence |
| ENCLOSURE – RATH? | Iron Age | Defence |
| Historic Settlement | Post-Medieval | Domestic |
Listed buildings in MAZE
| Address / Name | Grade | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Kilwarlin House 129 Moira Road Hillsborough Co. Down BT26 6JW | B1 | 1860 – 1879 |
| St. James' Primary School St. James Road Kilwarlin Hillsborough County Down | Record Only | 1840 – 1859 |
| All Saints Church of Ireland Eglantine Road Hillsborough County Antrim BT27 5RQ | B+ | 1880 – 1899 |
| Eglantine House Harry's Road Carnbane Hillsborough Co. Down | B2 | 1840 – 1859 |
| Eglantine Gate Lodge Eglantine Estate 266 Hillsborough Road Carbane Hillsborough Co. Down BT27 5RJ | B1 | 1840 – 1859 |
| Wellington Lodge 292 Hillsborough Road Hillsborough Co. Down BT26 6HN | B2 | 1780 – 1799 |
| NEWPORT HOUSE 101 CULCAVEY ROAD MAZE CO. DOWN | B1 | 1820 – 1839 |
| ‘H’ Block 6 Zone J, The former Maze Prison, Halftown Road Lisburn BT27 | B1 | 1960 – 1979 |
| Multi Denominational Chapel Zone J, The former Maze Prison, Halftown Road Lisburn BT27 | B2 | 1980 – 1999 |
| Concrete Perimeter Walls Zone F and J, The former Maze Prison, Halftown Road Lisburn BT27 | B1 | 1960 – 1979 |
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See all 462 wards in the Northern Ireland Heritage Tool.
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.
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/