12 May 2020• Blog Posts
Ireland’s Eye, located in the Irish Sea, north of Dublin City is the landmark that tells air travellers from the East that they are about to land in Dublin. The island has a fascinating story to tell and its long history is reflected in the built heritage that survives on the island; prehistoric promontory forts, Roman finds, a church with a long history and a Napoleonic era defence tower. The written histories of the island include accounts of monastic settlements and Viking raids.
The CHERISH team had made a number of visits to Ireland’s Eye with the aim of adding to the current archaeological record for the island and developing an understanding on how this Island is being effected by climate change. Ireland’s Eye differed from other CHERISH case study sites as accretion (the deposition of additional materials) along the western coastline was the main coastal process in action.
The Dinnseanchas, originally composed in the sixth century, tells us that the Island was known as Inis-Ereann the island of Eria. Afterwards the island name changes to Inis-mac-Nessan, from the three sons of Nessan, a prince of the Royal family of Leinster. The present name Ireland’s Eye comes from an Anglicisation of the Viking name for Inis-Ereann where ey denotes ‘island’. Some of the earliest evidence of activity on the Island are the Promontory forts, these sites are typically associated with the Iron Age, though some had long histories of use. Prior to this survey, only one promontory fort was recorded on the Island. The team will update the sites and monuments record with the newly identified promontory forts. Two coins from the Roman Empire found on the Island provide evidence of the Iron Age Ireland’s interaction with Roman Europe, and are possibly contemporary with the first use of the promontory forts.
The church is referred to as Kilmacnessan or St Nessan’s Church and the three sons of Nessan reputedly founded a monastery here in the 6thCentury AD. While the historical accounts indicate there was a church on the island in the 6th century, the current structure appears to date to several centuries later. A 12thcentury date is suggested for the church due to its nave and chancel construction with a single entrance in the west wall. This is supported by the parallels with the Church of St Michael of Pole in Dublin City and documentary evidence which records that the church was transferred to the mainland, in 1235 AD. The church was heavily restored in the 19thCentury. Ploughing exposed stone coffins in close proximity to the church in 1868, indicating an associated cemetery.
The Annals of the Four Masters says the island was besieged by Foreigners from Dublin in 897 AD and plundered in 960 AD (Gwynn & Hadcock, 1988). The Annals of the Four Masters detail how the in the late ninth century the Vikings made an encampment which was besieged by Irish forces and in 960 AD a Viking fleet plundered the monastery. Another highly visible structure that dominates the north-west of the island is a Martello tower. It was established on the Island in 1805/1806 AD as part of the Napoleonic era coastal defence system along the Irish coastline.
In Summer 2019 we co-hosted a very successful heritage walk and beach clean with Clean Coasts. The accretion occurring on the west side of the island means that waste materials are being deposited along with beach sediments. The CHERISH team explained both the history and built heritage of the island as well as the geological heritage. And while the team explained our research to the participants, we also learnt lots from the very knowledgeable and informed locals, including members of the local history and archaeology group Resurrecting Monuments. We are looking forward to returning to Ireland’s Eye to carry out further research including geophysical surveys.
Read more about the archaeological sites on the island on the National Monuments Service Historic Environment Viewer
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
__cfduid | 1 month | The cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not correspond to any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information. |
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
JSESSIONID | session | Used by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests. |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
YSC | session | This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_ga | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
_gid | 1 day | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visted in an anonymous form. |
ahoy_visit | 12 hours | This cookie is set by Powr. The cookie is used for analytics measurement. |
ahoy_visitor | 2 years | This cookie is set by Powr. The cookie is used for analytics measurement. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_gat_powr_apps | 1 minute | No description |
ahoy_unique_26031620 | 12 hours | No description |
CONSENT | 16 years 8 months 4 days 8 hours | No description |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
IDE | 1 year 24 days | Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile. |
test_cookie | 15 minutes | This cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | 5 months 27 days | This cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website. |