Mountsandel Fort
Mountsandel Road
Coleraine
BT52 1TL
United Kingdom
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About Mountsandel Fort
Mountsandel Wood contains one of the earliest known settlements of humans in Ireland dating to between 7600 and 7900BC. Flint tools were found here, indicating that Stone Age hunters camped here to fish salmon in the natural weir. The earthen fort is built with an imposing command of the river, clearly of strategic importance, and is thought to date back to Anglo-Norman times. This large oval mound has an enclosing deep ditch, and the dished out surface on the summit may indicate use as a motte and bailey, and/or that the site may have been modified for use of artillery warfare in the late 16th century or later. The forest walk leads from the fort down to the banks of the Bann and passes close to the weir at The Cutts. There are good views over Somerset Wood and of the River Bann.
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