CHERISH (Climate, Heritage and Environments of Reefs, Islands and Headlands) is an exciting, 5 year European-funded Ireland-Wales project between the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, the Discovery Programme: Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland, Aberystwyth University: Department of Geography and Earth Sciences and Geological Survey, Ireland. The project will receive €4.1 million through the Ireland-Wales 2014-2020 Programme.

CHERISH is a truly cross-disciplinary project. It aims to raise awareness and understanding of the past, present and near future impacts of climate change, storminess and extreme weather events on the rich cultural heritage of the Irish and Welsh regional seas and coast. We will be employing innovative techniques to study some of the most iconic coastal locations in Ireland and Wales.  

The four main aims of CHERISH are to:

• Target data and knowledge gaps to raise awareness of heritage in these remote coastal locations.
• Discover, assess, map and monitor heritage on land and beneath the sea and establish new baseline data and recording standards.
• Link land and sea.
• Reconstruct past environments and weather history.

CHERISH will work with communities and will widely disseminate the results and best practice for future climate change adaptation.