Climate Change & Coastal Heritage

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CHERISH Team

22 December 2021• Blog Posts

CHERISH: The Year that was 2021 -Highlights from the CHERISH Project Manager

News Letter

It’s hard to believe that the project has now reached the end of its fifth year and we reach what would have been the original end date of the CHERISH Project.  We are fortunate that we have had an extension to the project and additional European funding to allow us to enter a further phase to promote and market the results and products of the project. CHERISH will now be with you until June 2023!

This year has been a very busy year and despite the on-going pandemic and changes to the way that we work, the team has been busy across Wales and Ireland. Here are a few of my chosen highlights to end 2021.

2021 was the year of CHERISH excavations, starting at Ferriter’s Cove in Co. Kerry, over 2 weeks in May. Here a promontory fort and castle are situated on a narrow headland at the western extremities of the Irish coastline. Excavation uncovered a very well-preserved hut site and we eagerly await the results of post-excavation analysis to reveal when it was occupied.  The excavation is featured in our 8th CHERISH newsletter available to download here

Ferriters Cove Excavation – May 2021
Ferriters Cove Excavation – May 2021

Two excavations also took place in Wales. In August CHERISH contributed to the second season of excavation at Dinas Dinlle coastal fort. This built on our 2018 excavation and was undertaken by Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, with funding from Cadw, National Trust, and CHERISH. The highlight of the dig was undoubtedly revealing the full extent of the impressive roundhouse within the hillfort interior.

Dinas Dinlle Excavation August 2021 – here you can see the full extent of the roundhouse and the proximity to the cliff edge
Dinas Dinlle Excavation August 2021 – here you can see the full extent of the roundhouse and the proximity to the cliff edge

As the Dinas Dinlle excavations were drawing to a close, a new one was beginning at Caerfai Promontory Fort in Pembrokeshire.  Here CHERISH contracted DigVentures to run a community excavation for us.  The two-week excavation was blessed with great weather and over 150 volunteers took part. Dig diaries and images from the excavation can be found on the dig ventures website and the DigVentures team also provided a lecture for the Pembrokeshire Archaeology Day which can be viewed on the CHERISH YouTube Channel

Caerfai Excavation September 2021 – a montage of all the volunteers and staff involved
Caerfai Excavation September 2021 – an aerial view of the excavation site
Caerfai Excavation September 2021 – an aerial view of the excavation site

We didn’t just stay on dry land and 2021 saw the continuation of our maritime survey programme and our first wreck dive, the Bronze Bell, a cargo ship carrying Carrera marble from Tuscany that was shipwrecked on the Sarn Padrig reef.   CHERISH commissioned MSDS Marine who undertook the first underwater survey of the wreck for the first time since 2006. The team have produced a series of dive diaries which are available to view on the CHERISH YouTube channel.  There will also be an on-line lecture on the work of the team on the Bronze Bell by Alison James of MSDS Marine on 17 February 2022, tickets will be released in the new year.

Divers surveying the Bronze Bell
Divers surveying the Bronze Bell

We were very lucky that all of this activity saw interest from the national media and the work of CHERISH was featured on Channel 4 News and the ITV programme Coast and Country. 

2021 was the year of COP26 and we’ve continued to work hard to raise the profile of #ClimateHeritage. In May we held our CHERISH conference. This should have taken place in Dublin Castle, but we moved online and with the help of Fitwise we were able to deliver a virtual conference with international speakers from all corners of the earth.  It was a successful conference illustrating the common goal for the heritage sector to understand the impacts of climate change on our coastal heritage and how we can adapt to this.  All of the talks are now available to view on the project website and YouTube channel

We also saw the CHERISH Exhibition head off to its first venues: Bangor in Wales and Dun Laoghaire and Rush in Ireland.  It was wonderful to see it finally unwrapped after being stuck in storage due to the pandemic. We’ve lots more venues lined up in 2022, keep an eye on our website and social media for updates.

During the period of COP26 we contributed to and spoke at a number of  events and also  teamed up with other coastal heritage projects across the UK in the production of a series of films raising awareness of coastal heritage and climate change.  

I think it is safe to say that the team have been very busy this year and it is not often that as a Project Manager you get to acknowledge and publicly thank the team involved, so thank you! Here’s to an equally busy and informative 2022!

It is also an opportunity to wish two of the CHERISH team well as they leave the project, James Barry from CHERISH partner Geological Survey Ireland and Dan Hunt from the team here in the Royal Commission are moving on after four and a half years on the project and we all wish them every success in the future

CHERISH Team
CHERISH Team
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Remnants of the submerged forest and peat beds at Borth, Ceredigion (Picture courtesy of Geoff Duller, CHERISH Project).

30 November 2021• Blog Posts

Lost landscapes – A glimpse into the past and warning for the future!

News Letter

The future impacts of climate change – accelerated by human activity – are now widely reported, discussed and largely acknowledged.  All the evidence indicates there will be an increase in the intensity of the earth’s weather systems leading to enhanced storminess, more droughts and flooding, enhanced melting of glaciers and icecaps, and an increase in global sea-levels.  Yet somehow the implications for us personally can often seem remote and difficult to visualise.  However, the Welsh coastline offers us the opportunity to look into the past to see that rising sea-levels are not a new phenomenon.  Dotted around the Welsh and Irish coastlines, are the remains of pine and oak woodlands and fragmented blocks of peat that point to past and forgotten habitats to the waves that now beat against the shoreline.

The CHERISH Project has been working in this intertidal zone to record wrecks and relict archaeological landscapes, which also speak of loss and coastal change.  However, another aspect of our work has been to determine the age of some of the relict landscapes of the Llŷn Peninsular in relation to our work on past sea-level change.

Whilst monitoring a wreck on Warren Beach at Abersoch in Gwynedd in 2018, the CHERISH team discovered a sizeable tract of fallen tree trunks and blocks of peat.   The winter storms had removed vast quantities of sand exposing the peat.  Some of the peat had been block-cut, presumably for fuel, but where it was undisturbed it was peppered with animal hoof prints, probably a mixture of deer and aurochs.

Hoof prints in peat on Warren Beach, Abersoch Gwynedd
Hoof prints in peat on Warren Beach, Abersoch Gwynedd

During the last glacial episode vast amounts of sea water was locked up in the huge ice sheets covering swathes of the norther hemisphere.  It is estimated that sea-levels may have been over 75 metres lower than they are today.  However, figure 3 shows that much of Cardigan Bay lies less than 50 metres below its current level.  This area alone equates to 4400 square kilometres – 1/5th of total area of Wales. 

Depth contours in Cardigan Bay
Depth contours in Cardigan Bay

Our research indicates that Warren Beach was a wooded habitat around 7,700 years ago, but also that the environment was changing.  Ground water levels appear to have risen, probably drowning the trees, and initiating the formation of peat.  We can speculate that as sea levels rose the beach barriers blocked the drainage of rivers like the Afon Soch as they advanced inland.  We have also discovered that the sea reached Llyn Maelog near Rhosneigr on Anglesey around 7000 years ago, changing it from a fresh-water lake to marine inlet.

Radiocarbon dating has revealed that trees grew once again on the foreshore at Abersoch around 4,300 years ago, while at Borth and Ynyslas they flourished between 6,200 and 4,300years ago.  At both site peat formation replaced the woodland habitat as the sea continued its inexorable rise which finally submerged the wetland and formed the current shoreline.

A wider view showing a prehistoric forest floor of animal hoof prints, embedded in peat, revealed at low tide.
A wider view showing a prehistoric forest floor of animal hoof prints, embedded in peat, revealed at low tide.

It intriguing to imagine the habitats that would have supported wild boar, Eurasian aurochs, bear, lynx and wolf that would have been hunted by the Mesolithic inhabitants.  It seems plausible that they would have witnessed the encroaching sea and loss of landscape, passing on stories of changing environments to subsequent generations.  How they made sense of the changes they experienced is anybody’s guess, but clearly they were unaware of the causes and helpless to influence them.

It is perhaps little comfort that our prehistoric ancestors had to contend with the same threats that we are facing today.  The trajectory for future sea-levels means that further loss and environmental change are inevitable.  However, unlike our ancestors, we should be aware that we are in-part responsible for the changes that will affect our children and grand-children, and more importantly we are not powerless to do something about it.

Location Map

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26 October 2021• Blog Posts

Rosslare Fort: Overwhelmed by waves and storms

News Letter

Introduction

A village once stood at the mouth of Wexford Harbour, guarding the entrance, fishing, and rescuing people wrecked on the sand banks offshore. Today, the buildings of this settlement known as Rosslare Fort are marked by dispersed broken stone walls, brick and wooden posts only exposed at low spring tides if shifting sand permits.

A view from the Wexford Harbour side of the spit with houses of the square to the right and jetty to the left. From the Mary Hughes collection as featured in Volume 2 of County Wexford in the Rare Oul’ Times by Nicholas Furlong and John Hayes (1987).
A view from the Wexford Harbour side of the spit with houses of the square to the right and jetty to the left. From the Mary Hughes collection as featured in Volume 2 of County Wexford in the Rare Oul’ Times by Nicholas Furlong and John Hayes (1987).

Rosslare means ‘middle promontory’ and the fort in the village name, which distinguishes it from the better-known passenger and freight Europort 10km to the south, refers to a defence against raids first marked on 16th-century maps. The sand banks in the harbour and offshore were stable enough to allow dunes and this settlement to develop at the terminus of a 200m-wide 6km-long sand spit, which connected to the mainland at the south. In the 19th-century, the village had over forty houses, pilots, pump, school, church, customs and revenue station, lighthouse, and lifeboat station. Unfortunately, sand bars and dunes are not stable forever, and severe erosion made it uninhabitable by the 1920s.

The Journey to Rosslare Fort

It was during the equinox spring tides last month that the CHERISH team returned to Rosslare Fort. It had been almost four years since our last visit in November 2017. We were keen to see how the site had changed, if new features had appeared, and monitor erosional processes affecting the remains. Online satellite images show dynamic sand movements across the harbour with islets and channels appearing and disappearing.

Marine Services drop us off at the sand bank near the harbour mouth.
Marine Services drop us off at the sand bank near the harbour mouth.

Wexford Harbour Marine Services met us at Ferrybank Quay from where we headed out passing the Ballast Bank, now unused but important enough a feature for our RIB and a local bar to be named after it. Our Ballast Bank motored slowly between the channel marker buoys, sometimes only at three knots due to the recent sand deposition. Aidan, our captain, said shifting sands led to the buoys often having to be moved and larger boats would have to come in at high tide especially when fully loaded. The shallow constantly changing channel needs experience and local knowledge to navigate: something the pilots at Rosslare Fort would have had to do for visiting trading vessels.

Identifying change

We were dropped beside the number 11 red buoy, about 700m east of the fort, where the sand bank shelved steeply enough for the boat to get close and unload our equipment. As we approached the abandoned village, walking along the shelly sand bar, we thought things looked different, we remembered a relatively sand flat approach. However, today we were on a sand bar that had small patches of grass at its highest twisting peak. It looked down on to the fort where we set up our base of operations (GPS set up for positioning and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle helipad for our drone). We also noticed a new sand bank had formed seaward of the fort.

Our drone and GPS base on the sand bar with the ruins of Rosslare Fort in the distance.
Our drone and GPS base on the sand bar with the ruins of Rosslare Fort in the distance.

We walked down onto the sand flat for a visual inspection of the village remains, and to lay photogrammetric targets for the drone that could be surveyed using RTK GNSS for accurate ground control. Seals had taken over the village. Their knowledge of the channels and seafood carries on activities of pilots and fishing people that lived here. In another month or so their cubs will be where the village children swam and played. They snorted and grunted at our approach and slipped into the sea watching us keenly from the water waiting for us to go. Our suspicions of the changes were confirmed when we realised the greater extent of ruins. The posts and buildings that were only partially exposed last time were clearer and open to interpretation. Sand waves with stranded jellyfish covered the sand flat, and channels still flowed through the village as harbour water continued to empty forcing us to wade.

Walking SW from the sand bar the first group of ruins we came to, we notice the foundations and floors of possible buildings, though the uneven line of their walls indicate that severe subsidence has occurred. A nightmare for any house owner! Their colonisation by green and brown seaweeds reveals a damp health hazard along with submergence on every tide with strong currents. This suggests that the ruins have been exposed above the sand for a long period of time allowing the seaweed to grow. This is more surprising to us as photography from our previous visit confirm this area was covered by a sand bank four years ago. There is a double line of wooden posts to the east, which may have been the revenue jetty on the harbour side, when the sand spit existed. To the north there are the remains of a stone slipway and pier. These buildings could be the lifeboat house and store, and rocket post. The 1903 Ordnance Survey map shows a light house near here.

The NE area of ruins of Rosslare Fort showing house foundation and floor.
The NE area of ruins of Rosslare Fort showing house foundation and floor.
The NE area of ruins of Rosslare Fort included a slipway and pier.
The NE area of ruins included a slipway and pier.

We had to cross a shallow channel to get to the next area of ruins to the SE. This area we did remember from our last visit but it was more extensively exposed today. It was possible to make out a collapsed brick chimney and find fragments of roofing slate, coal, and rounded pottery from the wave action. An almost complete stoneware jar that we recovered here in 2017 may have been for jam or pickles.

Brick chimney in 2017 from the square area.
Brick chimney in 2017 from the square area.
Stoneware storage jar from Rosslare Fort.
Stoneware storage jar from Rosslare Fort.

As this is the largest area exposed it is easier to interpret it from the drone images we took. The wind at 20 kmph, was on the cusp of being too windy for the drone but with limited time and opportunities for the fort to be exposed, we decided to fly soon after arrival rather than wait for a possible drop in wind speed. This showed the area to be roughly square in shape so was probably the village square – a cluster of about a dozen houses that included the home of the revenue officers and families as well as the church.

Drone image of the fort in 2017.
Drone image of the fort in 2017.
Drone image of the fort in 2021 below showing the village square in the foreground.
Drone image of the fort in 2021 below showing the village square in the foreground.

Perhaps 19th-century land reclamation in the harbour and pier engineering at Rosslare Harbour exacerbated the decline of the fort, as it affected currents and sediment deposition. A Lifeboat Institution survey in 1915 reported the lighthouse had been undermined and destroyed by the sea in a gale the previous winter. They further described the sea to have been 140 feet seaward of the square in 1840, but a seawall was now necessary to protect the buildings. This stone and concrete seawall although disjointed today still holds a rough linear shape with some bends along the eastern side of the square. A pier is perpendicular to the line of this seawall.

Image of the village square November 2017.
Image of the village square November 2017.
Comparative image of the village square September 2021 we see more recent stone exposure and seaweed growth as well as damage to the marker post.
Comparative image of the village square September 2021 we see more recent stone exposure and seaweed growth as well as damage to the marker post.
Seawall and pier on western side of the square in 2017.
Seawall and pier on western side of the square in 2017.
Seawall and pier on western side of the square above in in 2021 below showing brown seaweed taking over from green.
Seawall and pier on western side of the square above in in 2021 below showing brown seaweed taking over from green.

The storms of Christmas 1924

This looks to be the pier and seawall on the seaward side of the square when occupied. From the Mary Hughes collection as featured in Volume 2 of County Wexford in the Rare Oul’ Times by Nicholas Furlong and John Hayes (1987).
This looks to be the pier and seawall on the seaward side of the square when occupied. From the Mary Hughes collection as featured in Volume 2 of County Wexford in the Rare Oul’ Times by Nicholas Furlong and John Hayes (1987).

The newspapers (held in Wexford Library) reported from Christmas Eve in 1924 until the next morning a very strong SSW gale coincided with a high tide ‘three feet above the normal springs’. Along the spit, sand hills were washed away, banks were levelled, hills became beaches, the sea flowed over from the bay into the harbour at a place called Billy’s Gap, and a house already abandoned from erosion was almost entirely washed away. At 8.30am the walls of the pilot house had fallen, as powerful waves mounted the banks and flooded ground floors. An engineer’s assessment of the damage highlighted that telephone communication to the lifeboat station had been cut making it impractical to continue. It also reported that Wexford Harbour had four entrances now as there were three breaches in the sand spit. Comments mentioned the more gradual reduction in height of the Dogger Bank, it had previously been six feet above high tide acting like a breakwater, protecting the village.

The area of the pilot station looking north towards the houses at the square in the background. The image shows the sand spit breached by the sea between the pilot station and the square. From the Larry Duggan collection as featured in Volume 1 of County Wexford in the Rare Oul’ Times by Nicholas Furlong and John Hayes (1985).
The area of the pilot station looking north towards the houses at the square in the background. The image shows the sand spit breached by the sea between the pilot station and the square. From the Larry Duggan collection as featured in Volume 1 of County Wexford in the Rare Oul’ Times by Nicholas Furlong and John Hayes (1985).
A wooden house with brick chimneys damaged by a storm. Possibly the same area as the previous image of the pilot station above due to similar materials. From the Larry Duggan collection as featured in Volume 1 of County Wexford in the Rare Oul’ Times by Nicholas Furlong and John Hayes (1985).
A wooden house with brick chimneys damaged by a storm. Possibly the same area as the previous image of the pilot station above due to similar materials. From the Larry Duggan collection as featured in Volume 1 of County Wexford in the Rare Oul’ Times by Nicholas Furlong and John Hayes (1985).

Surveying against the tide

From where we were surveying we could see waves breaking over a feature 200m to the southwest, close to the modern channel. Unfortunately, we could not visit due to it being submerged. These could be the ruins of houses or the area of the Pilot Jetty and Station. This shows the need for the continued monitoring as more features are uncovered.

After only a couple of hours, the tide had turned and we had to pack up and return to the RIB who had patiently waited for us in the channel. We took some last minute photographs and retrieving the markers, some of which had already been covered by the rising tide.

Recording the location of our targets as the sea returns quickly.
Recording the location of our targets as the sea returns quickly.

The remains and memories of the fort today, tell a story of a busy maritime community which played an important role in saving lives and controlling access to Wexford Harbour, and who also carried out fishing and wildfowling to make a living. Some people also holidayed and used the resort as a base for deep sea fishing. Many of the houses, possibly the fort and even a reported Martello Tower, are still covered by the sand. When exposed by the tides and sand, the site is a visible reminder of the power of the sea and an example of landscape change from erosion affecting communities. This must have happened in many areas of Ireland over its thousands of years of habitation, and to coasts globally. However rising sea levels, increased precipitation, and the occurrence of severe storms predicted by climate change, many more coastal settlements are going to be affected.

Back home we have started to compare old photographs and descriptions of the fort with what we saw on the site visit and recorded by drone so we can start to interpret the ruins.
Back home we have started to compare old photographs and descriptions of the fort with what we saw on the site visit and recorded by drone so we can start to interpret the ruins.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Darina Tully for information on the village, Gráinne Doran from Wexford County Archives for letting us look through their old photographs, and Wexford Harbour Marine Services Captain Phil Murphy and Aidan Bates for taking us there. The description of the layout of the settlement in the Rosslare Lifeboat Memorial website helped to interpret where we explored.

Location Map

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9 September 2021• Blog Posts

Bronze Bell Wreck Dive

Bronze Bell Wreck Dive

Bronze Bell Wreck Dive

Filming dive diaries, looking out to the Bronze Bell site.

CHERISH have commissioned MSDS Marine to undertake inspection, survey, investigation, recording and monitoring of the Bronze Bell wreck, a previously monitored and designated wreck site in Welsh waters. This project is taking the work of CHERISH under the water to the Bronze Bell protected wreck site. The work is building on previous survey undertake by recreational divers and other archaeological contractors with a five-day diving project taking place in September 2021.

 

 

The survey will seek to uncover any evidence of change to the wreck, with a particular focus on change caused by climatic changes such as increased storminess. Daily dive video diaries from the team will update the public on the work as it takes place. During the project there will be opportunities to visit the teams outreach trailer based in Pwllheli to find out more about the work and see what the team have found.

 

The team are producing daily dive diaries, scroll down for the daily blog and video diaries.

Dive Diaries

Day 0 – Sunday 12th September

On Sunday the MSDS Marine team, accompanied by a film crew, travelled to Barmouth to meet one of the original team who found the site in the late 1970’s. Geraint Jones was full of enthusiasm and knowledge about the site and was able to share his experiences with the team. He is very keen that his knowledge of the site is passed on to a new generation of divers ready to further understanding of the wreck. He shared his experiences on the site with us and was able to update the team with his observations of how the site changed over the twenty years he was diving the wreck site. He believes that the species seen on the site changed over time and he believes this is due to climate change and the ocean getting warmer.

 

We were shown around Barmouth Museum by two of the volunteers who open the Museum to visitors. The Museum is not opening in 2021 due to Covid-19 but the team hope to be back open at Easter 2022. The Museum houses a fabulous collection of material from the wreck including the Bronze Bell that gave the wreck its name and many fascinating items from swivel guns to a tiny fly that came out of a concretion. Many of the finds were conserved by Geraint and their current condition is testament to his skill.

We were also joined by Ian Cundy of the Malvern Archaeological Diving Unit (MADU) who has been involved with the site for many years. The team visited the beach at Tal-y-Bont and were able to look out to the site which is only a few hundred metres from the shore. Ian then joined the MSDS Marine team at their accommodation in Pwllheli and spent the evening sharing his site knowledge and enthusing the team with the wreck.

 

By the end of the day the team had gained a much better understanding of the wreck site, and its history, and were keen to get out to dive the next day. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Geraint, Ian, Alan and John for their time and willingness to share their knowledge and experience.

Day 1 – Monday 13th September

The team met the diving support vessel, SeeKat C, at Hafan Pwllheli. Skipper Jon Shaw had brought the boat round from Amlwch the previous evening. The equipment was loaded onboard, and the team set off to site. The wreck is located over an hours ride from Pwllheli which is made longer due to the Sarn Bardrig reef which requires a longer journey round it to avoid going aground.


The team have all managed to dive on the wreck to get an orientation and to start to understand the wreck as well as completing a number of tasks. The wreck is in 10m of water which is relatively shallow and allows the divers to spend up to 232 minutes on the bottom without the need for any decompression stops. The first dive team of Tom and Jess explored the whole site and started to take high quality video footage across the wreck that will be used in the outreach trailer this week as well as on school visits.


Jenny and Simon formed the second wave of divers and had been part of the team from Wessex Archaeology who surveyed the site in 2004. Their orientation dive enabled them to make observations about how the site has changed in the last seventeen years as well as to collect sea water samples for pH testing. The team will be taking many samples for testing this week as part of the work to collect baseline data to enable future researchers to monitor the effects of climate change. The final dive saw Tom heading back into the water with Felix. Felix is an underwater photogrammetry expert and on the dive managed to gather footage of the marble blocks that form the cargo mound. This evening he will be starting to process the footage and the team will be sharing this over the next few days.


Evenings are a busy time on a dive project; cylinders need filling, paperwork needs completing, videos need editing, photogrammetry needs processing and tomorrow’s jobs need planning. Stay posted for more from the team tomorrow as well as the first video diary.

Day 2 – Tuesday 14th September

 

Our second day diving the wreck saw glorious sunshine which was a nice change to the previous days rain and was a nice start for the team who had stayed up processing data into the early hours of the morning. The wind died down too from the previous day and three waves of divers achieved almost six hours underwater on the wreck. The shallow nature of the site allows divers to spend longer periods on the seabed than on deeper sites.

 

The first wave of divers saw Tom and Jess, a professional underwater camerawoman, start to take photographs at key points on the wreck, replicating those taken by Wessex Archaeology in 2004 as well as establishing new monitoring points. The second dive team of Simon and Felix continued the photogrammetry across the site. Having completed the cargo mound the previous day the team now focused on an area with multiple cannon and anchors present. The final dive team saw Tom and Jenny start to undertake a survey of marine flora and fauna that is present on the site, as well as collecting more pH samples. This baseline data will be important for monitoring the effects of climate change on the site in years to come.

 

As we prepared to lift our anchor the boat was surrounded by a swarm of barrel jellyfish ranging from tiny ones just a few centimetres across to huge ones over half a metre long. 

Day 3 – Wednesday 15th September

 

The third day on the site started off very well with the chance to open up the MSDS Marine Heritage Hive trailer to the public to talk about our work on the wreck. The trailer has lots of activities for children to try as well as a TV showing our daily video diaries. It also acts as a shore based information hub to bring our work underwater to a wider audience and to give people the chance to meet the team and ask questions.

 

Out on the wreck it was another fantastic day for weather but we had slightly worse conditions underwater with decreased visibility which meant our divers could only see shorter distances. Despite this we still managed six hours in the water! The first team to enter the water, Tom and Jess, completed the monitoring photos that will enable the condition of the wreck to be compared to the visit by Wessex Archaeology in 2004 as well as acting as a future baseline for further monitoring work. Our divers have spotted a number of monitoring tags from the 2004 survey around the site. Tom also completed a number of measurements of cannon on the site to help update the site plan and to refine its accuracy. Towards the end of his dive Tom spotted a plastic bag on the seabed that is evidence of marine plastic pollution on the site.

 

The second dive team completed two tasks; Felix completed the photogrammetry and Simon took pH samples and helped the surface team calibrate and check the diver tracking system. All the divers on the team are tracked using the Sonardyne Micro Ranger system. Mark, our diving supervisor, was able to direct Simon from the surface to aid Phoebe in her work on the GIS and tracking. Simon was tasked with swimming to a number of locations around the cargo mound to calibrate the system and to check the systems accuracy. We were really pleased to be able to show the system was operating with excellent accuracy.

 

The final wave of divers saw Jenny and Jess diving on the site to further our knowledge of the marine flora and fauna that are present across the wreck. This is an important study that will allow us to start to understand how climate change might affect the site in future. Species spotted include numerous tom pot blennies, cuckoo wrasse, various types of seaweed and a possible cup coral.

 

Day 4 – Thursday 16th September

Our fourth day on the wreck saw us joined by a team from Channel 4 news. They are interested in the work of CHERISH in relation to climate change and were keen to find out more about our work on the Bronze Bell wreck site. They interviewed members of the team and found out more about our work. Watch Channel 4 news next week to see if you can spot the team!

 

Felix continued his photogrammetry modelling across the wreck , capturing thousands of images in an area to the east of the site that we needed to complete the model. He was accompanied by professional underwater camerawoman Jessica Mitchell. Jess was tasked with capturing high quality footage of the survey in progress as well as with photographing the wreck itself. Felix will be doing the initial processing of the photogrammetry this evening but the final models will take a number of weeks to process once the team are back in the office with dedicated processing computers.

 

Tom, Simon and Jenny undertook detailed recording of the cannon to the west of the cargo mound. Understanding the exact dimensions of the cannon will enable the team to find out more about them, including helping us to understand their date and where they were made. Our diving protocols mean that only two divers can be in the water at any one time. Tom and Simon did the first dive and then Jenny and Simon did the final dive of the day.

 

Yet again we achieved six hours bottom time today. This may not seem like a lot but the logistics of a diving project mean that this is actually a really good achievement by the team. The weather is looking very unsettled tomorrow and we are unsure if we will be able to get back out to the wreck for our final day. This is incredibly frustrating for the team but we are confident we have achieved a significant amount in the four days we have spent on the wreck so far.

 

Day 5 – Friday 17th September

Our final day on the wreck was defeated by the weather! High winds meant we were unable to get the boat out of Pwlhelli marina to get to the site. The team had anticipated this yesterday but it is always still frustrating when you are unable to dive. Despite this set back the team have achieved all our priorities for the week and more! Over the coming weeks we will be able to share a photogrammetry model with the public so that more people can see how the wreck looks underwater.

 

The day was not a wasted one though as we had a busy programme of school visits and outreach planned. Some of the team visited a local primary school, Ysgol Gynradd Abererch, to talk about underwater archaeology and the work of CHERISH on the Bronze Bell wreck. We were impressed by the enthusiasm of the children and the questions they asked the team. The children all had the chance to try on diving equipment and finished by making a Bronze Bell inspired badge to take home to remember the visit. The school are following the visit up this term with a programme of work looking at local shipwrecks.

 

Other team members opened the MSDS Marine Heritage Hive trailer. The trailer is named the Heritage Hive after a comment from a member of the public that the team look like busy bees in their distinctive yellow and black t-shirts. We were able to talk to passing members of the public about our work this week and the work of CHERISH on other sites. We were delighted to talk to a diving club from Southport who visit the area regularly and we have encouraged them to apply for a licence to visit the wreck. Visits to the site from groups like this could be a helpful tool for future site management.

 

The final team members continued editing video footage into the final dive diaries and processing the photogrammetry. The photogrammetry processing can take weeks to complete. This weeks dives have resulted in over 7,500 images that have been taken across the wreck. We have covered an area 46m x 30m – a substantial area of the site! Felix will be continuing the processing once he returns to his office next week.

 

Tomorrow we will be heading home to our MSDS Marine base in Derbyshire but there is still plenty more work to do for CHERISH on the site. Stay posted for further dive diary videos, models and reports!

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Aerial view of Ferriter’s Promontory Fort and Castle, where the CHERISH excavation will take place this summer.

29 March 2021• Blog Posts

Ferriters Castle & Promontory Fort Excavation

News Letter

Introduction

The CHERISH team plan to carry out archaeological excavations at Ferriter’s Castle and Promontory Fort once current restrictions allow. The site is located on the Ballyferriter Headland, Dingle peninsula in Co. Kerry. Doon Point (Dún an Fheirtéaraigh) is a long, narrow promontory extending slightly over five hundred metres from north east to south west. Beautiful views from this site include Sybil head to the north and the Blasket Islands to the west. This prehistoric fort is one of 95 coastal promontory forts in County Kerry, and one of 508 such forts recorded around the Irish coastline. Promontory forts are being heavily impacted by erosion and therefore the CHERISH project are undertaking excavation on this fascinating site in order to learn more about this Irish archaeological site type. Ferriter’s Promontory Fort sits directly to the north of the Mesolithic- Neolithic transition period site at Ferriter’s Cove, which was excavated in the 1980s. Excavation holds the potential to reveal the very exciting use of this headland over thousands of years. The excavations will build on from our initial investigations at Ferriter’s Promontory Fort which included walk-over survey, detailed terrain modelling through drone mapping, and geophysical survey using both magnetic gradiometry and resistivity surveys. The results of these surveys have guided our plans for excavation, identifying anomalies in both the surface topography and sub-surface make-up that have the potential to be man-made.
Aerial view of Ferriter’s Promontory Fort and Castle, where the CHERISH excavation will take place this summer.
Aerial view of Ferriter’s Promontory Fort and Castle, where the CHERISH excavation will take place this summer.

Site Defences

The two sets of defences on this promontory fort are located where two natural coves occur dividing the promontory into two distinct sections. These two necks of land were utilised and enhanced by the builders of this fort with a series of banks and ditches, to form an outer and inner set of defences. The team will look at these defences during excavation to understand how and when they were constructed, as well as hoping to learn something about the people who built them and lived in this fort. The team will record and sample the construction materials of the banks and ditches to identify the different phases of construction, as well as the methods and materials used in their construction. We hope to use scientific dating methods to date some of the occupation and/ or construction phases.
The inner set of defences, stone work is visible on the inner bank of this double bank of defences.
The inner set of defences, stone work is visible on the inner bank of this double bank of defences.

Hut Sites

In the fifteenth or sixteenth century, reuse of the fort occurred when the Anglo-Norman Ferriter family constructed a castle on the inner bank of the outer defences. This tower house was originally a 4-5 storey rectangular tower, occupied by the Ferriter family until the seventeenth century. Ferriter’s Castle is built on the inner bank of the outer defences of the fort. The castle has been recorded in high resolution by a 3D laser scan survey. This provides an exact record of the castle at the time of survey, and allows the team to monitor any changes that occur to the castle. Excavations in this part of the fort will focus on the rectangular house sites, thought to be associated with the later medieval activity on the site. A trench will be excavated to expose the old floor level at the time of occupation and to see what type of construction was used to build them. This may allow us to determine how these structures relate to the tower house and its occupants. A well is recorded in this section of the site, a core will be taken to determine if it is, in fact, a well and to gather material for palaeo-environmental investigations.
CHERISH Laser Scan Survey Ferriter’s Castle, June 2018.
CHERISH Laser Scan Survey Ferriter’s Castle, June 2018.
In the second section of the fort, there are numerous hut sites and sub-circular depressions. These archaeological features are being heavily impacted by erosion due to their cliff side location and it is therefore, very important that the team garner as much information and knowledge as possible about this site type before they are eaten away by the sea. The team will excavate in full one of the larger hut sites, the example selected is not located along the cliff edge to provide a safe working environment for the team. These investigations will allow us to understand the nature of construction of these structures as well as when and why these hut sites were built. The sub-circular depressions in this area are unusual features, and the excavation trenches in these features will allow us to determine if they man-made or geological. If they are man-made features we will record and sample them to answer the same questions we have asked of the other archaeological features within this fort. During the excavation we may uncover artefacts that have been buried for hundreds or in some cases thousands of years. If we are lucky enough to uncover artefacts they could shed light on the different periods of usage of this site, and perhaps give us an insight into the type of people who lived at this beautiful, but exposed location.
Project archaeology Ted Pollard carrying out a geophysical survey of the site in 2019.
Project archaeology Ted Pollard carrying out a geophysical survey of the site in 2019.
The CHERISH team are very grateful to Dennis Curran for granting us permission to work on his land, his friendliness and generosity during survey work, and for the wealth of local knowledge he has shared with the team.

Location Map

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