Boundary Stone,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Boundary stone set on the grassy roadside bank on the N side of the Ballyknockan Road, c.1.5 miles W of Ballygowan.

The grey granite stone measures roughly 25cm x 20cm in plan and 45cm in height at the front (with the bank ascending at the rear). The front face of the stone has a shallow, segmental arch headed recess (c.17cm x 14cm) which once held a cast iron plate. This plate was described in the 1st survey (7th Feb. 1974) as ‘depicting stag and dragon with the initials H.T.’, but this is now missing, with only part of the iron plug still embedded in the stone. Judging by a break in the stone to the left side of the recess it might be assumed that the plate was possibly deliberately removed.

Historical information

The granite and iron construction of this post resembles the early 19th century milestones along the Co. Down stretch of the Dublin-Belfast coach road (still extant at Sprucefield, Hillsborough and Dromore). The function of the stone is unclear, however, but positioned as it is on the border of the townlands of Ravara and Ballyknockan it may have acted as a boundary marker of sorts, the significance of the figures of the stag and dragon on the (now missing) iron plate and the initials ‘H.T.’ perhaps referring to the immediate landowner responsible for its presence in the first place. It appears odd, however, that a boundary marker presumably relating to fields should be placed on a roadside, an oddity compounded by the fact that hedgerows and stone walls are the usual means of land demarcation in Ireland

Alternatively, the stone may have related in some way to the presence, just yards to the east, of a large ‘flax spinning factory’, marked on the 1858 OS map, or may have been removed from elsewhere and simply relocated in this spot.
The iron plate appears to have been removed some time prior to 1993.

Primary sources
1 PRONI OS map 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 16.

Secondary sources
1 W.A. McCutcheon ‘The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland’ (HMSO 1980), pp.15-16.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Small granite ‘boundary stone’ the significance of which appears uncertain. A pictorial cast iron plate once attached to the stone has been removed.