Editing Downpatrick (section)

===Pre-history===
An early [[Bronze Age]] site was excavated in the Meadowlands area of Downpatrick, revealing two [[Roundhouse (dwelling)|roundhouses]], one was four metres across and the other was over seven metres across.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Mallory, J.P.  |author2=McNeill, T.E.| year=1991 |title=The Archaeology of Ulster from Colonization to Plantation | publisher=Institute of Irish Studies, QUB | location=Belfast | page=95}}</ref> Archaeological excavations in the 1950s found what was thought to be a Bronze Age hillfort on Cathedral Hill, but further work in the 1980s revealed that this was a much later [[Rampart (fortification)|rampart]] surrounding an early Christian monastery.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Duffy |editor-first=Seán |title=Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopaedia |first=T. E. |last=McNeill |contribution=Downpatrick |pages=133|publisher=Routledge |year=2005}}</ref>