Ballyharry facts for kids

Ballyharry (which means "town of the charioteer" in Irish) is a small area of land, about 224 acres, located on Islandmagee in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It's a very important place for history because many ancient Neolithic (New Stone Age) house sites have been found and studied here.

Ballyharry is part of the civil parish of Islandmagee. It also belongs to the historic area known as the barony of Belfast Lower.

Discovering Ancient Homes: 1996 and 2003

In 1996 and 2003, archaeologists found two very old Neolithic houses. These houses were located east of the Ballyharry Farm site. Dermot Moore led the excavations, which means he carefully dug up and studied the sites.

One house seemed to have been rebuilt or changed at least four times. It had clear holes where wooden posts once stood. There were also several pits, which might have been for storage or cooking.

Archaeologists found many cool things here. They recovered thousands of pieces of Western Neolithic pottery. They also found flint arrowheads and javelin heads. Pieces of polished stone axes and quernstones (stones used for grinding grain) were also discovered.

The second house was about 300 meters south of the first one. It also had many artifacts. This house was rectangular, and its foundation ditches showed it had walls made of posts and planks. More Neolithic pottery and polished stone axe fragments were found here too.

What Was Found in 2004?

Another archaeological study happened at Ballyharry Farm in February and March 2004. This site was about 700 meters west of the two houses mentioned above. Experts from Queen's University Belfast carried out this work.

They focused on a small field near St. John’s Church. They found a large amount of stone tools and flakes in the soil. These findings suggested that people lived here during the Neolithic period.

Many flint cores (pieces of flint from which tools were made) and struck flakes (pieces broken off to make tools) were recovered. About 100 pieces of Neolithic pottery were also found.