Help Build a Neolithic Newgrange Currach 10/02/2010
Readers may be interested in a brilliant opportunity to get involved in a project reconstructing a large currach based on the Boyne-type currachs used up until the twentieth century. This summer the project will be experimenting with methods of transporting stone based on theoretical ideas about how stone was transported from various places on the east coast of Ireland to Newgrange and there are further plans for next year. The film company Crossing the Line Films is involved on the project. They were previously involved in the extremely professional production of Blood of the Irish. I was involved in a similar project based in Denmark which resulted in the sailing of a reconstructed viking ship called the Sea Stallion from Roskilde to Dublin and back. I can highly recommend it and if I can find the time I might get involved myself. I'd strongly advise a look at the superb website and encourage people to get involved in a project that represents an exceedingly rare opportunity. Sea Stallion from Glendalough Viking Voyage 11/03/2009
 Fast-forwarding to today the reconstruction of the ship was sailed to Dublin in the summer of 2006 finding a huge crowd to welcome it when it sailed up the liffey to where its predecessor was likely built. The ship was over-wintered in the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks until it was craned out in the summer of 2007 following lots of labour intensive maintenance of the hull. I was there when they lifted it into the water just beside th eastlink toll bridge and spent a fun morning filling the ship with a couple of tons of ballast.  In the summer of 2008 I was lucky enough to be part of the crew of a reconstructed viking longship built by the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. The Sea Stallion is a reconstruction of a ship deliberately sunk in the Roskilde fjord sometime after it was built in 1042AD. The accurate date for the ship comes from dendrochronological analysis of timbers from the ship that also allowed identification of where the timbers for the ship were sourced. This turned out to be somewhere in the vicinity of Hiberno-Norse Dublin.  We met the ship in Lowestoft in eastern England but frustratingly, the weather gods prevented our sailing for a full week. Eventually we got going and sailed across the North Sea to Holland before making our way northwards to Denmark and the Limfjord. Sailing at night in the north sea is an experience that will always stay with me and I was lucky enough not to feel sea sick and to actually enjoy sleeping on deck under the stars with the ship rocking me to sleep!  Our arrival in Roskilde was spectacular with a huge flotilla of boats, yachts and traditional craft escorting us in and thousands of people lining the shore to greet us. An incredible ship, incredible crew an incredible experience and at the same time an amazing bit of experimental archaeology. | What?A site about Irish archaeology: conferences; links; opinions;news; information and the internet.      CategoriesAll ArchivesJuly 2010    
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