Overview
Around 7,900 BC, hunter-gatherers built a cluster of round huts on a bluff above the River Bann, just south of Coleraine in County Londonderry. Radiocarbon dates make this the oldest known human settlement in Ireland – thousands of years older than Newgrange. Set that expectation before you arrive, though: there is almost nothing to see of it above ground. The draw here is the idea, the setting and a good riverside walk, not visible ruins.
The site is managed by the Mountsandel Discovery & Heritage Group, open year-round and free. Interpretive panels along flat woodland trails do the explaining, and on the same rise sits an Iron Age earthwork known as Mount Sandel Fort. It makes an easy, quiet stop off the Causeway Coast route, well away from the crowds at the Giant’s Causeway.
Ireland’s first home (c. 7,900–7,600 BC)
Excavations led by Peter Woodman in the 1970s uncovered the post-holes of circular huts, hearths, and thousands of worked flints. The huts weren’t stone – they were timber frames of bent saplings, covered with hide or reed – which is why the settlement leaves so little trace today. What survives is mostly in the record: the debris and remains that told archaeologists how these people lived.
And they lived well. Bone finds point to a varied, seasonal diet – wild pig, salmon, sea bass, eel and flounder from the Bann, along with duck, pigeon and grouse; charred apple pips and water-lily seeds show what they gathered. It’s one of the fullest pictures we have of Mesolithic life anywhere in Ireland.
The fort on the hill
The prominent flat-topped mound nearby is often called a Norman castle, but it is older than that: an Iron Age fort, a raised oval ringed by a deep ditch. Its best-known chapter is medieval, when the Anglo-Norman lord John de Courcy used it as a residence in the 12th century during his conquest of Ulster. Stray finds from the Bronze and Iron Ages in the riverbank deposits suggest people kept returning to this spot for a very long time.
The woodland and the walk
The wood around the site is a mix of mature oak, ash, beech, hawthorn and wild cherry, and the riverbank draws kingfishers, grey herons, buzzards and mute swans. The paths are flat and family-friendly.
The walk to do is the circular route from the Mountsandel Forest car park on Mountsandel Road: about 2.5 km, climbing high above the Bann to the fort, then dropping steeply to the riverbank and returning upstream past the Victorian lock and weir at Cutts. Give it an hour at an easy pace.
Practical information
- Location: about 1.5 km south of Coleraine town centre, on the east bank of the River Bann.
- Opening: open all year, daylight hours; the site is unstaffed.
- Admission: free.
- Parking: a small car park on Mountsandel Road, off the A29. Spaces are limited, so come early in summer.
- Facilities: none on site. Coleraine, a short walk or drive away, has cafés and toilets.
- Dogs: welcome on the paths; keep them under control near the river and the earthworks.
- Interpretation: panels line the trail, and an audio guide can be downloaded from the Mountsandel Discovery & Heritage Group website.
Nearby
The Bann Estuary is close by for birdwatching and coastal walks, and Coleraine has the nearest museums, cafés and heritage stops. Bring binoculars – the riverbank stretch of the walk is the best chance of a kingfisher, and a better reason to linger than the mound itself.