2009:144 - DUNWORLEY SHIPWRECK, DUNWORLEY BAY, Cork

In 2005 and 2009 the Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU) undertook an extensive diving operation on a shipwreck site in Dunworley Bay in Co. Cork. This focused on carrying out a detailed survey and targeted excavation of the wreck, under the direction of the author. The primary role of the UAU within the Department of Environment is to manage and protect Ireland’s underwater archaeological heritage and it was as part of its enforcement and survey brief that the work on the Dunworley wreck was being carried out. This dive operation was designed to expand the knowledge of the site and build on the results of two previous surveys carried out by the UAU (Excavations 2006, No. 332, 05E0494). One involved inspection dives in 2003 and the other a general survey carried out in 2004 of both the wreck site and its wider environs. This work formed part of an investigation being carried out by Ireland’s National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, in co-operation with the Department of Environment’s National Monuments Service, the National Museum of Ireland, the Irish Customs and the Garda(. The investigation centred on the alleged damage to a protected wreck site in the bay by a number of divers. National legislation in Ireland protects all shipwrecks over 100
UAU archaeological diver recording remains of broken swing gun on site in advance of recovery (No. 144). Photograph courtesy of C. Kelleher.
years old and a licence is required from the Department of Environment for diving on protected wreck sites. The investigation came to a conclusion in February 2007 with the successful conviction of three individuals for tampering with and damage to the protected wreck site under Section 3 of the 1987 National Monuments (Amendment) Act. This was the first such conviction in the history of the Irish State.
The work by the UAU on the site up to 2005 centred on acquiring evidence of damage done to the site to inform the ongoing investigation, but it was identified thereafter that archaeological questions still remained outstanding. In 2009 the UAU returned to the site to carry out select research-based work on the wreck to attempt to answer some of these questions, including carrying out more detailed recording of the guns and undertaking targeted excavation of the hull structure to record constructional details and width. It was also intended to take further wood samples for dating and caulking samples for analysis and to tie this in with more in-depth historical research on the ship type and record of ships being lost in the bay. The amalgamation of all information from the UAU’s work on the Dunworley wreck will inform on a long-term management and protection strategy being put in place for the future preservation of the site.
For a full report on the work of the UAU on the wreck site, please see C. Kelleher 2010, ^The Dunworley Bay Shipwreck: 17th-century evidence for piracy and slavery in Ireland?’, in Proceedings of the Society for Historical Archaeology/Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology Conference 2010 – Coastal Connections: Integrating Terrestrial