The branching ratio of 223Ac decay by spontaneous 14C emission was measured and a search for 15N clusters was performed. After exposure of a hemispherical array of solid-state nuclear track detectors, 347 14C events were identified and no 15N events. B(14C) = λ(14C)/λ(α) = (3.2 ± 1.0) x 10-11 is consistent with a favoured ground state to ground state transition. As no nitrogen tracks were found, only an upper limit could be inferred for 15N emission, B(15N) = λ(15N)/λ(α) ≤ 2.2 x 10-13 (confidence limit 90%), consistent with an unfavoured transition. Intense 227Pa sources were produced for this study, using the reaction 232Th(p,6n)227Pa. This offered an opportunity to compare the measured source strength with predictions based on published excitation function data.