Category Archives: IRELAND

Irish schoolboy discovers 4,000-year-old boat in Roscommon

Irish schoolboy discovers 4,000-year-old boat in Roscommon

LISACUL, IRELAND — A 12-year – old boy has found out the ruins of a wooden long-boat while wading in a lake in the Roscommon County of North Central Ireland reported by Irish Independent.

The boat may have been built early in the Neolithic period or as late as the Middle Ages.

An old boat that was more than 4,000 years old, uncovered by a bored schoolboy who abandoned his homework to paddle in the lake.

The 17ft longboat was lodged in the mud in the lake at the back of 12-year-old Cathal McDonagh’s home in Lisacul, Castlerea, Co Roscommon.

Archaeologists have told the family the ancient vessel could date back as far as 2000 BC.

The Irish Independent reports that McDonagh tripped over the vessel as he paddled in the shallow water of the lake and says that an expert team will travel from Dublin later this week to examine the find. 

The lake is home to at least one crannóg – an artificial island used as dwellings and defense mechanisms in prehistoric Ireland. Crannóg’s are the oldest dwellings in prehistoric Ireland. 

There are additionally at least seven ringforts surrounding the town of Lisacul. 

Eileen McDonagh, Cathal’s mother, told the Irish Independent that he was supposed to be doing his homework when he made the discovery. 

She said that her son became bored with his schoolwork and went for a walk down to the lake, where he paddled up to his ankles in a pair of wellington boots. 

It was there that he tripped over the long piece of ancient wood and made the fascinating discovery. 

Cathal McDonagh, with mum Eileen, dad Peter McDonagh, Breana McCulloch and Declan Greene, putting the log boat back to where it was first discovered near Lisacul, Co. Roscommon.

Cathal’s father Peter and his two elder siblings Aonghus and Róisin were summoned to help him retrieve the vessel from the lake and the family then reported the find to the Underwater Archaeology Unit of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. 

Experts said that the vessel could date back to Ireland’s Neolithic era but that it also could be from the medieval period.

The experts advised the McDonagh family to place the vessel back in the water in order to preserve it. 

Clare man discovers cliff fort near his home while flying a drone in Ireland

Clare man discovers cliff fort near his home while flying a drone in Ireland

A respected software maker and drone operator have discovered an unexplained cliff near his home in Co Clare.

During the present lockdown Matthiew Kelly, a satellite, communication, and electronics specialist, worked a drone near Crag, Lahinch when he made his archeological discovery.

Kelly, however, has a history in this area having previously uncovered ancient forts in Dundalk in 2018.

His latest find had not been previously recorded in the National Monuments Service (NMS) database but has since been officially added.

Matthew Kelly explained: “I found the fort while flying my drone around the small cliffs at Lahinch during a lockdown.

I have been filming forts and stone circles for years so I knew what it was when I found it. I emailed the National Monuments Service who checked it out and added it to their database which means it is now recorded and protected.”

If this discovery is making you want to have a go at flying your own drone in the hopes of making an archaeological finding like this, then you can have a look at drdrone for some really great options.

Kelly isn’t however claiming all the credit for his latest discovery.

“The artist Jim Fitzpatrick inspired me to get into Irish mythology years ago so I asked him to name the fort. He suggested ‘Cliodna of the Waves’ so we will call it ‘Dun Cliodna’ (Cliodna’s fort).

Clíodhna is the goddess of love and beauty and is said to have three brightly colored birds who eat apples from an otherworldly tree and whose sweet song heals the sick,” Mr. Kelly said.

Matthew worked with artist Jim Fitzpatrick on a video about Newgrange and some of that footage was used on RTÉ’s Nationwide.

“I got into drones a few years ago when they first came out in 2014, my first footage was used on RTÉ’s programming Weather-Beaten in 2014 about the big storm.

I was lucky to work on a small project with Jim Fitzpatrick in 2016 and he encouraged me to visit the ancient sites of Ireland to see if anything new could be discovered with the drone,” Matthew added.

The discovery is now classed as a ‘cliff-edge fort’ in the townland of Crag and is “scheduled for inclusion in the next revision of the RMP (Record of Monuments and Places). “I also want to thank Anthony Murphy for helping me get the find reported to the NMS,” Mr. Kelly added.

The confirmation from the NMS states that the fort is: “Situated on a steep cliff-edge c. 450m S of Lahinch beach backing onto a NE-SW cliff. A sub-circular enclosure reported to the National Monuments Service by Matthew Kelly.”

During the hot summer of 2018, Matthew discovered a group of 5000-year-old forts in Dundalk.

Among the other sites reported over that summer were a prehistoric barrow cemetery found in Redcow near Dundalk, Co Louth by Mr. Kelly who was trying to locate a site once described as Ireland’s Stonehenge. His footage also included two ring-fort enclosures in the townlands of Glebe and Lisdoo.

The NMS estimates the range of monuments recorded across all sites date from 2200 BC to 1000 AD.

The newly discovered ring-fort near Lahinch has been named Dún Clíodna

Kelly is also an award-winning app developer and created a drone search and rescue (SAR) app called DroneSAR now being used by a range of SAR groups.

DroneSAR provides software that enables commercially available drones to maintain autonomous search patterns based on waypoint missions or user-defined search ‘boxes’, reducing risk to search personnel, improving situational awareness, and increasing the chance of finding people in distress, all at a fraction of the cost of a SAR helicopter.

Metal detectorist finds £100,000 gold haul while looking for his mate’s wedding ring

Metal detectorist finds £100,000 gold haul while looking for his mate’s wedding ring

Now a metal detector who was looking for a mate’s missing wedding ring has discovered a haul of gold coins worth an estimated £100,000 – and shouted: ”yee-ha – there’s a f*cking fortune here!’.

Paul Raynard, 44, screamed “’there are millions – this is the moment we dreamed of!” to best pal Michael Gwynne, 52, when he realized the scale of the find. The businessman from Keighley, Yorks., “broke down in tears” when he stumbled across his very own pot of gold – a cluster of 84 coins in a field near Ballycastle, Northern Ireland.

Stunned Paul and Michael found the coins – dating back to the 1500s – whilst looking for a farmer’s wedding ring he’d lost in his field. They didn’t find the ring – instead of digging up a horseshoe and a 5p coin – but after just 90 minutes of searching they found the collection of coins. Lighting engineer Paul said experts have told him it could be the biggest haul ever found in Ireland and worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Just one of the hoard – an ultra-rare Henry VIII coin – is estimated to be worth £5,000 on its own.

Edward VI coin

Paul found the underground treasure shows him pulling out muddy coin after coin from beneath the soil. He beamed at the Michael who is holding a phone struggled to contain his excitement.

Dad-of-two Paul said: ”I jumped up and down and ran down the field in tears to find Michael.

“It’s something I have dreamed of finding since I was a kid. It was an amazing feeling. It’s like checking your lottery numbers and realizing you’ve hit the jackpot.

“I saw one or two coins at first but had no idea of the size of the hoard to begin with.

This is the moment two metal detectorists looking for a mate’s wedding ring discovered gold coins

“I went to fetch Michael who was across the field so we could share the moment together. I was shaking, I still can’t believe it now.”

Paul and Michael were in Northern Ireland for a short holiday when their friend recruited them to help find his missing wedding ring. The coins have been sent to Ulster Museum for official identification and valuation by a team of experts. It will take several months for the 84 coins to be valued in full, but Paul has said other experts have told him the whole hoard could be worth more than £100,000.

The earliest coin in the hoard is dated 1512, was made when Henry VIII was king and could be worth as much as £5,000 on its own, Paul said. He added other coins – like one dated 1546 when the famed boy king Edward VI reigned – could be worth up to £3,000.

Many of the other 84 coins could fetch hundreds of pounds a piece if auctioned off. Paul said he and business partner, Michael, usually study old maps looking out for signs of ancient settlements or battlegrounds where hoards may be buried.

This is the moment two metal detectorists looking for a mate’s wedding ring discovered gold coins

Paul said: “We had just come back from a busy business trip to China and Michael said he knew of a nice little place we could go to in Ireland for us to take our detectors.

“But we only went to that field to try to find his mate’s wedding ring. He lost it and reckons it could be in the field somewhere.

“We didn’t find the ring and had only been there a couple of hours when we found the coins.

“I dug a small hole and there they were. I just could not believe it.”

Lighting engineer, Paul, has been interested in metal detecting since aged seven when his parents bought him a treasure island book as a present.

But he only took his hobby seriously when he turned 35 and purchased a £600 metal detector, capable of picking up gold and silver items buried up to 4ft below ground. This discovery is Paul’s most significant find and he has described it as a “once in a lifetime” discovery.

Paul said: “I’ve since found out it’s the biggest ever hoard to be found in Ireland.

“I’ve handed them all over to the museum to be properly identified and valued. It will take several months for that to happen.” The value of the coins will be split equally between Paul and the landowner if they choose to sell the hoard on for cash, following the completion of the valuation process.

Uprooted tree reveals a violent death from 1,000 years ago

Uprooted tree reveals a violent death from 1,000 years ago

The remain of a young man who died of what appears to be knife wounds sometimes between ad 1030 and 1200 was discovered tangled in the roots of a 215-year-old beech tree.

A hurricane erupted over the wild Atlantic shores of northwestern Ireland and fell a 215 years old beech tree in the middle of a County Sligo field straight out of the ground.

It was not the huge tree that drew widespread attention, but what was discovered snapped up in his twisted roots – half a human skeleton pulled out of his grave. It was not the massive tree.

After learning of the discovery of the bones, Ireland’s National Monuments Service called in archaeologist Marion Dowd to undertake a rescue excavation of the body that had, in essence, risen from the grave.

In her 20 years of academic and commercial work, Dowd had never seen anything like what she encountered at this site.

Excavating bones from tree roots.

Having just launched her own private firm, Sligo-Leitrim Archaeological Services, Dowd couldn’t have asked for a more bizarre maiden project. “

As excavations go, this was certainly an unusual situation,” Dowd says. “The upper part of the skeleton was raised into the air trapped within the root system.

The lower leg bones, however, remained intact in the ground. Effectively, as the tree collapsed, it snapped the skeleton in two.” The bones still in the burial plot were in a very well preserved condition.

After Dowd’s excavation, osteoarchaeologist Linda Lynch conducted a three-month analysis. Last week, the results of the radiocarbon dating revealed that the grave belonged to a young man between the ages of 17 and 20 who died during the medieval period between 1030 and 1200 A.D.

With a height of 5 feet, 10 inches, he was much taller than the average medieval person, which indicates he came from a family with a relatively high social status who could afford a nourishing diet.

However, he didn’t have an easy childhood as a mild spinal joint disease suggests he was involved in physical labor from an early age.

Dowd determined that the medieval teenager had received a formal Christian burial because his body was placed on his back in a traditional east-west orientation with his arms by his side.

While historical records indicate there was once a church and graveyard in the general area, no other bones or signs of additional burials were discovered in the immediate vicinity of the fallen tree.

Dowd estimates the grave was at least a foot under the ground and says the person who planted the beech tree around 1800 would have been unaware of the presence of a grave just below his feet.

Lower leg bones were in the grave, but the upper body was tangled up in roots.

It appears that the young man’s demise was a violent one. Dowd found two cuts to his ribs that were inflicted by a single-edged weapon, probably a knife.

She also discovered a visible stab wound to the left hand which suggests he may have attempted to defend himself from his attacker.

“This burial gives us an insight into the life and tragic death of a young man in medieval Sligo,” Dowd says. “He was almost certainly from a local Gaelic family, but whether he died in battle or was killed during a personal dispute, we will never know for sure.”

Dowd says there are no plans yet for further analysis of the bones, so this medieval murder mystery may endure.

The remains found beneath the uprooted tree will eventually be sent to the National Museum of Ireland in the capital city of Dublin.

Irish DNA originated in the Middle East and Eastern Europe

Ancient DNA Reveals Irish Are Not Celts – Irish Ancestors Came From Biblical Lands – Scientists Say

The possibility that ancient bones were found in County Antrim under an Irish pub in the mid-2000s has cast doubt over whether the Irish people are really linked to ancient Celts.

Bertie Currie clearing the land in 2006 and made a driveway on Rathlin Island off Antrim for McCuaig’s Bar, when he noticed a large, flat stone underneath the surface

Currie realized that there was a large gap underneath the stone and investigated further. 

“I shot the torch in and saw the gentleman, well, his skull and bones,” Currie told the Washington Post. 

He eventually found the remains of three humans and immediately called the police. The police arrived on the scene and discovered that this was not a crime scene but an ancient burial site. 

McCuaig’s Bar, where the bones were found.

It turned out to be a hugely significant ancient burial site as well that, with DNA analysis, could completely alter the perception that Irish people are descended from Celts. 

A number of prominent professors at esteemed universities in Ireland and Britain analyzed the bones and said that the discovery could rewrite Irish history and ancestry. 

DNA researchers found that the three skeletons found under Currie’s pub are the ancestors of modern Irish people and predate the Celts’ arrival on Irish shores by around 1,000 years. 

Essentially, Irish DNA existed in Ireland before the Celts ever set foot on the island. 

Instead, Irish ancestors may have come to Ireland from the Bible lands in the Middle East. They might have arrived in Ireland from the South Meditteranean and would have brought cattle, cereal, and ceramics with them. 

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science said that the bones strikingly resembled those of contemporary Irish, Scottish and Welsh people. 

A retired archaeology professor at the highly-renowned University of Oxford said that the discovery could completely change the perception of Irish ancestry. 

“The DNA evidence based on those bones completely upends the traditional view,” said Barry Cunliffe, an emeritus professor of archaeology at Oxford.

Radiocarbon dating at Currie’s McCuaig’s Bar found that the ancient bones date back to at least 2,000 BC, which is hundreds of years older than the oldest known Celtic artifacts anywhere in the world. 

Dan Bradley, a genetics professor at Trinity College, said in 2016 that the discovery could challenge the popular belief that Irish people are related to Celts. 

“The genomes of the contemporary people in Ireland are older — much older — than we previously thought,” he said.

Newgrange: The Massive Irish Tomb That’s Older Than The Pyramids

Newgrange: The Massive Irish Tomb That’s Older Than The Pyramids

Yep, 5,000 years. That’s older than Stonehenge. It’s older than the great Egyptian pyramids, too. And five millennia later, it hasn’t lost any of its wonders.

Newgrange was built around 3200 B.C. — hundreds of years before the Great Pyramid of Giza (2500 B.C.) and Stonehenge (3000 B.C.).

The massive hemispherical tomb is located in the Brú na Bóinne – Gaelic for the “palace” or “mansion” of the River Boyne. This 3-square mile area contains nearly a hundred ancient monuments, including two other large tombs, in addition, Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth.

A map of megalithic monuments in the Brú na Bóinne

Arriving at the iconic tomb is a wow-moment, to say the least. Standing outside the 80-meter mound, shored up with spiral-engraved kerbstones and topped with white Wicklow quartzite, a guide reveals the myths and history behind the monument. Newgrange could have been designed as a tomb or a temple – in reality, nobody knows which. The truth will be shrouded in mystery forever.

Let there be light…

Once the scene has been set for you as a visitor, you’ll step inside the passage tomb itself, squeezing through standing stones carved with spiraling rock art and graffiti dating back to the 1800s (before Newgrange was taken into State care).

Ducking under beams of wood, you’ll emerge into the cool confines of a cruciform-shaped chamber like a stony igloo squirreled away within a hill.

The engraved stone at the entrance to Newgrange.

This inner sanctum is where a lucky few (chosen by lottery from thousands of applicants annually) huddle together to witness the annual winter solstice illumination.

The illuminated inner corridor of Newgrange.

At this moment, when megalithic engineering and nature lock sensationally into sync, a shaft of light can be seen snaking 19 meters up the passageway, ultimately bathing the chamber in light. There are goosebumps, to say the least…

If you’re not one of the lucky ones, don’t fret. All visitors are treated to a simulated solstice, with an orange beam of light artificially showcasing the effect. It’s a tantalizing little taster – little wonder legend suggests that this was the site where mythological hero Cú Chulainn was Born.

Subterranean secrets…

A young girl stands in front of the entrance to Newgrange in about 1905

Newgrange isn’t the only passage tomb in Ireland, of course. In fact, it’s not the only passage tomb at Brú na Bóinne. Together with nearby Knowth and Dowth, Newgrange has declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1993. Not bad for a site that once looked destined to become a quarry!

Not far away, near Oldcastle, County Meath, you’ll find a lesser-known cluster of passage tombs. Spotted around a handful of hills at Loughcrew are several cairns also dating from around 3,200BC. Because they’re more obscure and harder to get to, the Indiana Jones effect is all the more titillating.

If you get the sense that you’re being watched here, you may well be right. Some 60km away, atop of Slieve Gillian in County Armagh, the passage of another tomb points directly back towards Loughcrew.

Slieve Gillian’s two cairns lie on either side of a summit lake, with the southern tomb said to have a winter solstice alignment at sunset. On a good day, the views stretch as far as Dublin Bay.

Archaeologist hails ‘extraordinary’ Viking village find in Dublin

Archaeologist hails ‘extraordinary’ Viking village find in Dublin

Researcher excavations have modified our understanding of the oldest Viking settlement in Dublin with a black pool or Dubh Linn which was considered to be much larger than originally expected.

The excavation alongside Dublin Castle has also revealed the oldest police cells in the city and a grave of punishment.

The excavation is taking place on Ship St near where the remains of one of Dublin’s oldest churches – St Michael le Pole that was founded in the 6th century – are known to be.

The dig is taking place beside Dublin Castle

Archaeologist Alan Hayden from University College Dublin said the work has uncovered the cells from a police station on Chancery Lane built-in 1830, and beside it are walls from a medieval farm.

There are 12th Century quarries that provided the stone to build Dublin Castle and its walls.

The most important discovery yet is that Dubh Linn – the pool on the River Poddle where the Vikings first settled – was much bigger than originally thought.

At present, a garden inside Dublin Castle marks what was thought to make up most of the original Dubh Linn.

However, this excavation has established it was nearly 400 meters wider extending to the present dig site and where St Michael le Pole church stood.

Mr. Hayden says this solves two questions that have puzzled historians – why St Michael’s Church referred to ‘le pole’ or the pool and how reports that the Vikings had up to 200 ships on the Dubh Linn.

Evidence of the settlement in the 12th Century

Niamh Donlon of the One Le Pole Square project says a development planned for the site will consist of a two-story convention center below six floors of office space.

It will incorporate the history of the site in its name.

The remains of the original St Michael le Pol church will be visible below a screen in a new public square and a tile from the church will be used in a new spa area.

A map of the site in the 14th Century

Tom Wilson, the senior civil engineer with builders JJ Rhattigan, said the archaeological dig was already factored into the development and has not caused delays.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hayden says there was one unusual find – a burial of a man found outside the church cemetery with his hand and feet cut off. He said this was a medieval punishment for insulting a lord or king.

Traces of 18th-Century Roman Catholic Church Found in Dublin

Traces of 18th-Century Roman Catholic Church Found in Dublin

On the grounds of Apollo House, the remains of a massive Catholic church built over 300 years ago in the heart of Dublin have been discovered.

Traces of 18th-Century Roman Catholic Church Found in Dublin
Archaeological works ongoing on Monday at the site where Apollo House previously stood, on the junction of Tara Street and Poolbeg Street in Dublin city center.

The Tara Street office block that was demolished last year was the location of a famous homeless activist sit-in during Christmas 2016.

The Ministry of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht have granted a license for the planning conditions for the reconstruction of the site. Marlet, the developer, was mandated to hire archaeologists to carry out excavations and document their findings.

Sleeping rough in Dublin in September 2016, at a corner of Apollo House.
Apollo House (at right), in Dublin city center, which has been demolished. The Screen cinema (lower building at left) is also gone amid a major regeneration at the site.
Homelessness activists at Apollo House in January 2017 as a court action was taking place regarding the occupation of the building, for the purpose of providing housing

The traces of the history of the site were now found in a massive archeological dig. The first ruins to be uncovered were the thick stone walls of a national school which was still standing in the shadow of the office block as late as the mid-1980s.

Covert church

But what lay underneath the old schoolhouse proved to be of more interest to archaeologists – the ruins of a considerably older structure which once served as a covert church for Catholics living in the south inner city.

The ruins, dating back to the turn of the 18th century, were unearthed in recent weeks by archaeologists led by Franc Myles of the historical buildings consultancy firm Archaeology and Built Heritage.

Illustration: Dernard de Gomme, The city and suburbs of Dublin, of 1673.
John Rocque, An Exact Survey of the City and Suburbs of Dublin, of 1756. The current site being developed is marked in red, with the church marked clearly within.

A church was first built on the site in 1709 in Penal times when the practice of Catholicism was banned. In spite of the religious restrictions, the chapel flourished and attracted thousands of worshippers.

“There was probably a building used as a chapel from the foundation of St Andrew’s parish in 1709 and it is depicted on John Rocque’s map [of Dublin] of 1756,” the archaeological report prepared for the developers says.

By 1811, the parish had grown and “it was decided that the chapel would have to be reconstructed”, the report says. The inscribed foundation stone for the new chapel was laid on April 23rd, 1814, by then parish priest Dr. Daniel Murray, who went on to serve as the Archbishop of Dublin from 1823 to 1852.

Work on a new structure duly started, and by 1831 considerable progress had been made. However, progress stalled when there was a split in the ranks of the faithful.

A newly appointed priest of St Andrew’s Parish found “a more desirable site for a new church was available on wasteland at a more central location in the parish on Westland Row”.

Work at the Tara Street church, which features prominently on the earliest ordnance survey maps of Dublin, was halted. The building was subsequently deconsecrated.

Recorded monument

“We have to dig here very carefully because the church is a recorded monument,” Mr. Myles told The Irish Times.

He noted that although it was a large structure and served many thousands of the Catholic faithful for more than a century, there was no graveyard attached to the church, which means the chances of skeletons being uncovered are remote.

Ordnance Survey, Dublin city, sheets 14 and 21, 1847. Current site development marked in red.

The dig is likely to the run-up to Christmas.

Such excavations are either preserved in situ or preserved in the record. Once the Tara Street ruins have been fully explored and the details recorded, they are likely to make way for the new office complex.

Mr. Myles said that when his team started digging on the site, they were expecting to find an original quay wall and timber structures dating back to the 1670s.

But nothing of that nature was uncovered, leading Mr. Myles to suggest that when Apollo House was being constructed in the late 1960s, most of the structures of archaeological importance “were basically demolished”.

He said evidence of the quays is “probably still under Mulligan’s Pub” on Poolbeg Street.