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Cushendun
Coast Road, Co Antrim
Introduction
Location
Cushendun is situated about 6 miles north of Cushendall just off the main Ballycastle road.
The Area
Nestling in a hollow at the mouth of the Glendun River, is both attractive in its surroundings and intresting in its historical associations; its beauties have been pictured on many artists canvas. To the west of Cushendun lies the miniture Glencorp and to the west stretches Glendun, where the deep gorge of the River Dun is spanned by a viaduct carrying the main Ballycastle road. North of Cushendun, a steep, narrow and winding coast road ascends to the fine viewpoint of Green Hill and passes near the lonely headlands of Torr Head and Fair Head before rejoining the inland main road to Ballycastle.
Stone Age
Way back, The Harvard Archacological Expedition claimed to have found near Cushendun the key to the chronology of the entire Stone Age. Flint tools of all the four principal Stone Age Cultures of Ireland were for the first time found one upon the other in the various layers of a cliff, thus making absolutely certain the order in which they followed one another. The spot where the excavations were made is only about 150 yards west of the village at a sharp bend in the River Dun before it enters the sea; the face of the cliff above the bend, 35 feet high, was pared down for the purpose of studying the various layers. the study was also of the highest geological importance; Professor Jessen of Copenhagen declares that the cliff is one of the most important in western Europe of the geology of the times succeeding the Ice Age. In the layers of clay shells and leaves which had vanished many thousants of years were found. Eight distinct layers were uncovered, revealing flints of differnnt dates in four of the five upper layers, from about 2000 B.C. to 6000 B.C.
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Page created:March 23, 2004
Last Updated: October 17, 2010