PARKGATE

Daniel Kirkpatrick

PARKGATE Heritage Profile

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By

Daniel Kirkpatrick

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By | Compiled 2026-05-05 | N08000129
154 historic sites 19 scheduled monuments 32 listed buildings 9 archaeological periods

PARKGATE covers 232.5 km² in Northern Ireland. With 154 historic sites and 19 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 93rd percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 32 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 63rd percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 62.9 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 9 archaeological periods, placing the ward in the 98th percentile NI-wide for chronological depth.

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

Heritage at a glance

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

154
Historic sites
96th percentile
19
Scheduled monuments
95th percentile
32
Listed buildings
63rd percentile
0.88
Sites per km²

Population context

14
Persons per km²
11th percentile
62.9
Sites per 1,000 residents
95th percentile
3,259
Total residents (2021)

The recorded heritage of PARKGATE

Of the 154 historic sites recorded, the most common are Souterrain (22, 14% of historic sites), Rath (8), and Megalithic Tomb (7). For Souterrains, this is the 93rd percentile across NI wards that record this type. For Raths, this is the 58th percentile among NI wards that record this type. Across the ward's 232.5 km², this gives a recorded density of 0.88 sites per km² (all heritage types combined). Scheduled monuments are distributed across approximately 0.07° of latitude and 0.13° of longitude within the ward, indicating dispersed rather than clustered placement.

Most common monument types

TypeCountDescription
Souterrain 22 —
Rath 8 —
Megalithic Tomb 7 —

Chronological distribution

Mesolithic
33
Neolithic
2
Early Bronze Age
10
Middle Late Bronze Age
2
Iron Age
18
Early Medieval
56
Medieval
6
Post Medieval
4
Modern
2
Unknown
21

Terrain and environment

With a mean elevation of 159m, this ward sits above the NI median (89th percentile), with a maximum of 326m giving the ward meaningful vertical relief. Mean slope is 4.4° (55th percentile across NI), giving moderately undulating terrain. The Topographic Wetness Index of 10.2 (39th NI percentile) indicates moderate drainage, balanced between upland shedding and lowland accumulation. The land cover is dominated by improved grassland (83%) and woodland (12%). In overall character, this is elevated but relatively gentle terrain — typical of plateau country, with land use dominated by improved grassland.

Terrain measurements

Mean elevation159.4 m 89th pct
Max elevation325.8 m 85th pct
Mean slope4.4° 55th pct
Wetness index (TWI)10.23 40th pct
Grassland82.6% 86th pct
Woodland12.5% 31st pct
Cropland3.6% 73rd pct
Urban land1.2% 11th pct

Where this ward sits in NI

Elevation
89th
Slope
55th
Drainage
40th
Grassland
86th
Woodland
31st

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 8% of the ward — a minor share, but where it occurs it can preserve organic finds in good condition. Bedrock composition is varied (complexity index 0.85, on a 0-1 Simpson-style scale), with multiple geological units within the ward boundary. Geologically diverse wards historically offered a wider range of stone types for building, toolmaking, and quarrying — a relevant factor when interpreting the material culture of nearby sites.

Bedrock eraCainozoic
Bedrock periodPalaeogene
Surface depositsTill
Peat coverage7.5%
Bedrock complexity0.85

Placename evidence

The combined OSNI, Logainm NI, and GeoNames sources record 45 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 PARKGATE

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
MotteMotteMedieval
SouterrainSouterrainIron Age
MotteMotteMedieval
RathRathEarly Medieval
Standing stoneStanding StoneEarly Bronze Age
Holed Stone: the Hole StoneHoled Stone: The Hole StoneUnknown
Motte: Dunamoy MotteMotte: Dunamoy MotteMedieval
RathRathEarly Medieval

Recorded historic sites

NamePeriodType
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular cropmark – BarrowEarly Bronze AgeRitual/Funerary
A.P. SITE – circular cropmarksEarly Bronze AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular enclosureIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – circular enclosureIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – cropmarkUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – oval cropmarkUnknownUnknown

Listed buildings in PARKGATE

Address / NameGradePeriod
Outbuildings at Loughanmore 51 Loughanmore Road Dunadry Antrim Co Antrim BT41 2HNB11860 – 1879
Main Gate Lodge and Gates to Loughanmore 53 Loughanmore Road Dunadry Antrim Co Antrim BT41 2HNB21920 – 1939
Original Gateway to Holestone House Ballymena Road Doagh Co AntrimB11820 – 1839
Orpin's Mill Orpinsmill Road Dunamoy Doagh Ballyclare Co Antrim BT39 0SXB21840 – 1859
Mosestown Carnlea Road Ballyclare Co.Antrim BT39 9JTB21800 – 1819
Burnside House 35 Burnside Road Dunadry Antrim Co Antrim BT41 2HZB21820 – 1839
Donegore Parish Church Donegore Hill Donegore Antrim Co AntrimB11860 – 1879
Watch House at Donegore Parish Church Donegore Hill Donegore Antrim Co AntrimB11820 – 1839
Bee Boles at Moat House 16 Donegore Hill Muckamore Antrim Co Antrim BT41 2HWB21840 – 1859
Garden Tower at Loughanmore Loughanmore Road Dunadry Antrim Co AntrimB21800 – 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.