Current Projects
The CAF are a partner in the Lough Neagh Landscape Partnership, an HLF funded programme which over the next five years will deliver numerous heritage projects around the lough shore. So far, the CAF have completed a geophysical survey and graveyard survey at Cranfield (Co. Antrim) and geophysical surveys at Aghagallon (Co. Antrim), Ardboe Abbey and High Cross (Co. Tyrone), and Mountjoy Fort (Co. Tyrone). In June 2017 we will be facilitating a community excavation at Aghagallon, which will facilitate the training excavation for QUB undergraduate Archaeology students.
The CAF began work with the Lough Erne Landscape Partnership (LELP) in 2016 and have completed a heritage audit and built heritage opportunities report to assess, identify and record the built heritage of sites within the LELP area. This work will be used to establish future priorities for preservation, interpretation and access and subsequently inform the selection of built heritage projects that will be part of the Stage 2 submission to HLF for funding.
In February 2017 the CAF carried out archaeological investigations on Cleenish Island on behalf of Bellanaleck Local History Group (BLHG) and funded by the Historic Environment Fund. The island is the site of 12 homes, built for returning WW1 veterans as part of a British Government programme called 'Homes Fit For Heroes'. The project included geophysical survey and Structure-from-Motion 3D digital data capture at three sites on the island. A web-GIS resource, has been complied with the assistance of BLHG and will be launched to coincide with the publication of a book on the history of the veteran’s lives on the island in the summer of 2017. The web-GIS will be used to promote the book and give members of the general public access to part of the archive gathered by BLHG.
CAF have been working with the Heart of the Glens Landscape Partnership since 2014. This has centered around highly successful community excavations at Doonmore, a medieval enclosure near Ballyvoy in 2015 and an eighteenth-century farm at Retreat near Cushendall in 2016. Local schools participated in the projects, surveying, excavating and learning about archaeological artefacts. We hope to carry out another community excavation in the Glens later in 2017.
In Spring 2017, CAF carried out archaeological invesitigations at Lumen Christi College, Derry. This was carried out on behalf of the Siege Museum and the Association of the Apprentice Boys of Derry and was funded by the HLF. The work included a geophysical survey and trial excavation in the grounds of the College where there was thought to be a high probability of finding siege-period archaeology.
