Antiques in Derry
Chalk with bands of flints is a characteristic feature of the scenery of Derry and Londonderry, flint having been plentifully strewn over these and the adjoining counties, by the ice streams of the Glacial period. The most important remains of the settlements of Stone-Age man are the raised beaches at Lame, Whitepark Bay, Island Magee, Portrush, Portstewart, etc. As well as at these settlements, flint flakes and implements have been found nearly every- where along the shores of the River Bann ; several stations having produced implements and flakes in profusion. Many implements and flakes have been found at Mount Sandal, south of Coleraine, and at Kilrea : implements have also been found at Port- glenone, Gortgolc, Culbane, and at other places as far as Toome Bar where the Bann leaves Lough Neagh.
The flakes obtained from sites on the River Bann are often carefully flaked and trimmed. The typical flake is leaf-shaped with a well-marked bulb of percussion, it has generally a brownish patina. The implements from the Bann, include axe-heads of the kitchen-midden type, scrapers, pointed implements, and a few ordinary polished celts. Many sites occupied by Neolithic man are to be found in the sandhills of the north coast of Ireland. These sandhills lie above the raised beaches, and, when the wind lays bare old surfaces among the hollows, pottery and worked flints are found. The best known of these are at Whitepark Bay, Co. Derry (Holiday Cottages, Derry, Ireland) ; Dundrum Bay, Co. Down ; and the mouth of the River Bann, near Portstcwart, Co. Derry (Hotels, Derry, Ireland). Among the flints found arc numerous cores and flakes, while scrapers of various sizes, some being exceedingly small, are also discovered in large numbers, showing that the working of flint was carried on extensively in the sandhills. Polished axes have also been found at these sites, while highly finished arrowheads and hollow scrapers have been discovered at Dundrum Bay and Portstewart. The pottery obtained from these settlements is often decorated with incised lines, etc., and judging from some of the objects discovered, it is probable that the human occupation of the sites lasted from Neolithic times into the early Iron Age and the Christian period.