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Fundamental Bench Mark is a bench mark located in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. Bench marks are fixed reference points established to record precise elevation data across the landscape. This fundamental bench mark formed part of the systematic surveying infrastructure developed to map Britain and Ireland with increasing accuracy from the eighteenth century onwards. Such monuments typically comprise a small brass or metal plate set into stone or masonry, marked with a broad arrow and horizontal line to indicate the precise height datum.
The bench mark sits upon bedrock composed of unnamed extrusive rocks of Palaeogene age, formed from mafic lava and mafic tuff during the volcanic activity that shaped much of the north-east Irish landscape around 60 million years ago. These dark, dense volcanic rocks underlie much of the Coleraine area and have influenced both the topography and the practical challenges faced by surveyors establishing their measurement network.
The monument is protected by the Historic Environment Division under reference 16431, recognising its importance as part of the heritage of surveying and infrastructure development in Northern Ireland. Bench marks of this type, though often modest in appearance, represent significant achievements in the scientific mapping of the landscape and remain valued records of historical elevation measurements.
Fundamental bench mark is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 16431. View the official record →
Fundamental Bench Mark is a bench mark located in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 16431.
Fundamental bench mark is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Ni. The official designation reference is 16431.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Piper's hill. long mound (1.6 km), Counterscarp rath (3.8 km), Mound, possibly signal mound (4.6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Fundamental bench mark's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Fundamental bench mark stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Palaeogene, bedrock that formed in the Paleogene. The rock here is mafic lava and mafic tuff.