ESCR - Other Karst Sites in County Antrim

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Summary Full report
Other Karst Sites in County Antrim	Antrim

Site number:	1170
ESCC:	IC
Locality Type:	Karst	Status:	local interest
Grid Reference:	J450954,D193263,D267244,D29282243 Centroid, Not Entered
Google maps:	54.78596,-5.74601
County:	Antrim	Council area:	Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council
Period:	Quaternary, Tertiary, Cretaceous
Stages:	Eocene, Holocene, Palaeocene, Santonian
Lithostrat:	Antrim Lava Group, Lower Basalt Formation, Ulster White Limestone Formation

Site Description
Description:
INTRODUCTION During the course of the study into Black Burn Cave a number of other karst and palaeokarst sites were identified or brought to our attention by Ian Enlander and Stephen Barnes. These are listed below. They are currently poorly documented and researched and further work is required to determine the nature, extent and importance of these sites. 1. Red Hall Estate, J450954 One major gorge feature with rising at Chalk - Lias contact. A number of sinks occur to the south of the gorge and are presumably linked. 2. North of Ballycarry Village southwest of Red Hall Pers. comm. of a major sink in this area which is apparently substantial enough to allow access. 3. Tievebulliagh area, D193263 A series of solution dolines and sinks are located to the south of the escarpment line at the basalt - chalk contact. 4. Shaft, Cushenilt Burn, D267244 A shaft on the west bank of the burn lies approximately 10m above the stream bed in a small cliff. It is 16m deep with a ledge at 7m. The shaft splits at the bottom into two shallow pots choked with gravel. Some speleothem deposits occur to the left of the entrance. This site appears to be a relict cave, truncated by valley deepening. 5. Shaft on bank of the Ardclinis Burn 22m deep shaft choked with gravel approximately 6m above the stream bed in the valley side. This site appears to be a relict cave, truncated by valley deepening. 6. Turlough, D29282243 A small lough with no visible inlet or outlet is underlain by the Ulster White Limestone Formation. This is commonly dry in summer. TERTIARY PALAEOKARSTS Interbedded between the Ulster White Limestone Formation and the Antrim Basalts is a distinctive "clay with flints". This is composed of flints, frequently rotten in character, interbedded with red lateritic muds and silts which are frequently coarsely laminated. This lithology is interpreted as resistant flints which have been weathered from the chalk during emersion, in a matrix of lateritic muds and silts derived from Tertiary soils and/or volcanic ash from the initial Tertiary eruptions on the Antrim Plateau. Such an emersion period with exposed carbonates would be expected to produce karst features within the carbonates. Fissures filled with Tertiary sediments have been reported from Magheramorne Quarry near Larne (Savage, 1957) although it could not be conclusively proven that these fissures were Tertiary in origin. During investigations of the potential catchment for the Black Burn Cave system, a number of palaeokarstic features, of definite Tertiary age, were examined at a number of localities. A preliminary list and description of the features examined is given here, although it should be stressed that this is merely a record of chance discoveries and that there may be a much wider range of such features along the Antrim coast. (i) Doline, D280250 A coastal scarp in the Ulster White Limestone Formation and Lower Basalts exposes a large cone shaped depression in the upper surface of the Ulster White Limestone. The depression is ~10m deep and is infilled by horizontally bedded lateritic deposits containing flint cobble horizons. This depression is interpreted as a doline on the upper surface of the Ulster White Limestone Formation which has been infilled by laterite and derived flints prior to being buried beneath the Lower Basalts. (ii) Cave, D26772459 On the eastern side of Cushenilt Burn (a steep sided narrow valley on the northwestern margin of the Garron Plateau) a cavity infilled by red lateritic muds and silts with flint nodules was recognised on the vertical southeastern side of the valley. The valley is formed along the trace of a southeasterly downthrowing fault which offsets the Limestone - Basalt contact by ~25m. The infill sediments are generally massive, but show some poorly developed horizontal lamination in places. The cavity is ~3m wide by 1.5m high and has the characteristic shape of a phreatic tube. This feature is interpreted as a phreatic cave which developed prior to the initial Tertiary volcanism as part of a palaeokarst system which developed within the Ulster White Limestone. It has subsequently been infilled by laterites and flints weathered from the chalk and the karst has then been buried under the basalts.
Notes:
For information on the Garron Plateau karst see; Key Site 1169 - Eastern Garron Plateau, County Antrim. For site specific information see; Key Site 434 - Red Hall Estate Key Site 435 - Tievebulliagh area Key Site 436 - Cushenilt Burn Key Site 437 - Turlough.

Keywords
Rocks:	Basalt, Flint, Laterite, Limestone
Geomorph:	cave, doline, pothole, sinkhole, speleothem, turlough

References (6)
Barnes, S., 1994. Preliminary Hydrological Investigation of the Area between Carnlough and Waterfoot, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. (Thesis) University of East Anglia.
Campbell, M., 1984. Surprise find in Irish Chalk. Caves & Caving, numb. 26, pp.26.
Fogg, P., 1991. County Antrim Caves & Caving, numb. 54, pp.27.
Lowe, D.J., 1992. Chalk Caves Revisited Cave Science, vol. 19 numb. 2, pp.55-58.
Savage, R.J.G., 1957. Fossiliferous fissures in the chalk of North-East Ireland. Irish Naturalists Journal, pp.147-153.
Wilson, H.E. & Manning, P.I., 1978. Geology of the Causeway coast. Memoir for one-inch geological sheet 7. Memoirs of the Geological Survey Northern Ireland, HMSO, Belfast.

Map(s):	See the 1:50,000 O.S. Sheets 9 (Ballymena, Larne) and 5 (Ballycastle).
Record type:	ESCR report
Entered by:	E M Porter
Last updated:	23 Dec 2003

Enlander, I., Dempster, M. & Doughty, P., 2026. Other Karst Sites in County Antrim, County Antrim, site details. [In] Earth Science Conservation Review.
https://www.habitas.org.uk/escr/site.php?item=1170. Accessed on 2026-11-08.

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