4 Ballymarfin Church Ruinfi 



thatch. Of the carved stones, some were rough hewn basalt, 

 while a number were of smooth magnesian limestone, of which 

 so much was used by the Normans in the building of the churches 

 of St. Nicholas, Carrickfergus, and the old church at Holywood, 

 and taken from a now exhausted quarry at Cultra. 



The l)asalt carvings were all fire marked, while the lime- 

 stone were not, from which it may be assumed that the ancient 

 native Irish Church was burned, and that it was restored and 

 partly built during the Norman occupation. It was probably at 

 this restoration the walls were patched and partly rebuilt with 

 mortared masonry, and the limestone jambs inset. The western 

 end of the south wall, for about twelve feet from its junction 

 with the gable, was entirely gone, but there was one stone in 

 position where the remaining portion of this wall terminates, 

 which was evidently the bottom stone of the east jamb of the 

 entrance door ; the Ordnance Survey memoir referred to above 

 and quoted by O'Laverty, mentions that the door was in the 

 north wall, but this is quite wrong, as no gap occurs in any part 

 of the walls except at the western end of the south wall. 



The accompanying rough sketches show examples of the 

 only carved stones found ; they all appear to be portions of the 

 jambs and mullions of windows, but no fragments of glass 

 wer-e .found in the excavations. 



Of the considerable deposit of kitchen midden remains found 

 at the west end of the chui'ch floor, a detailed account may be 

 given. The half quern of Scrabo freestone was practically per- 

 fect, measuring 18" in diameter. Of the other half we found 

 two fragments among the debris of building material, but not in 

 the kitchen midden remains ; they were of Tardree rhyolite. I 

 assume that the two fragments were of the half quern that had 

 been originally mated with the other half found in the kitchen 

 midden, but of course there is no proof of this. 



The pottery remains ai'c of much interest. There were not 

 found sufficient fragments of any one vessel to effect recon- 

 struction. There appear to be pieces of six vessels, four show 



