County: Limerick Site name: Aughinish East
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 18E0182
Author: Finn Delaney
Site type: Dredge monitoring
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 528404m, N 655443m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.645461, -9.057975
Geomara were commissioned by Fastnet Shipping to carry out a program of archaeological monitoring of maintenance plough dredging at RUSAL Aughinish Alumina, in the River Shannon near Foynes, Co. Limerick. The works location consisted of one area on the Aughinish Alumina facility, a section of the outer berth. The dredging program was carried out from 16 to 21 April 2018. A previously completed archaeological assessment of the overall long-term maintenance dredging licence was carried out in 2015 and it recommended that any dredging be monitored by a qualified marine archaeologist.
The program of maintenance dredging used plough dredging towed from the stern of Fastnet Sound, a 27m multicat, to reduce bed levels at a specific area of the northern side (outer berth) of the unloading jetty to a depth of -12.5m.
The area monitored during the project covered the area of the outer berth, which was monitored from the vessel bridge. During the monitoring program and by recommendations of the archaeologists and the client the plough was brought to the surface every 6 hours. At each interval the plough was inspected in order to determine if anything of archaeological importance may have become lodged during the course of the dredging works. The monitoring operations of the dredging scheme did not record the presence of any potential archaeological material or features impacted or uncovered.
The Portershed, Eyre Square, Galway H91 HY51
