County: Dublin Site name: Dublin Port
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08D038; 08R109
Author: Rex Bangerter, The Archaeological Diving Company Ltd, Brehon House, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: Timber wreck
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 721016m, N 734633m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.348060, -6.182409
Initial assessment took place of a section of timber wreckage located within the seabed impact area associated with the proposed Dublin Gateway Project. The section of wreckage lies partially exposed within a sandbar c. 450m east of the current reclamation extent of the North Port. Under normal tidal conditions the sandbar is largely exposed at Low Water. However, due to weather conditions experienced on the day of survey, the sandbar was not fully exposed, a 0.5m-high water-column being retained over the site at low water. Nevertheless, it was possible to undertake the wreck inspection as a waded exercise and to plot the extent of the wreck site using differential GPS. In addition, a systematic probe survey was undertaken to delineate those sections of wreckage buried within the sandbar. A metal-detection survey was also carried out to identify the presence/absence of iron fastenings within the wreck structure. The site inspection documented the visible limit of the wreck site and allowed a methodology for further investigation of the wreckage to be devised. The work was carried out on 21 April 2008.
