Submerged forest in doonbeg

p___

hi folks,
I was down in Doonbeg a few weeks ago,

While walking on the beach I came across a lot of black wood sticking out of the sand.
I walked down a bit and found many tree trunks and stumps- it went out for about 200 meters

I then found bog/peat laid down on top of that.

You could see the stratification because the sea is eroding they lot of it.

I found a bone in the lower level of the bog, beside a tree trunk- got pictures of it. Looks like a scapula- it's pretty big so i'd imagine that of a deer.
I also then found evidence of a midden under the bog at the level of the forest- shells packed in together- smaller ones inside of larger ones in stacks.
I had a look on the net, there's not a lot about this up yet. Apparently there have been a few of these uncovered on the west coast due to storms about a year ago. 7500 years old is the age put on those uncovered so far
Could also be due to Trump's protection work - boulders and rebuilding the dunes that surround his golf course

Not sure if I can upload photos but I will if I can..

It's a pretty cool site, does anyone know if it is being investigated? It strikes me as good opportunity to see what the land was like and possibly make some finds related to Mesolithic ireland

p___

how do i post photo's?

Bonedigger

p___ wrote: »

how do i post photo's?

Unfortunately, you won't be able to upload any photos until you've clocked up 50 posts.

mocmo

This sounds like an interesting find / site, the midden and bone are potentially very significant. Last years winter storms uncovered several submerged forests along the west coast, but I can't recall any middens being exposed.

You should report your discovery to the National Monuments Service, 01 888 2178 or 01 888 2169.

Well done!

cfuserkildare

Interestingly enough, There are the remains of a similar inundation victim just beside Bray Harbour.

p___

cfuserkildare wrote: »

Interestingly enough, There are the remains of a similar inundation victim just beside Bray Harbour.

I found a good piece on the net about that one
which I also can't post because i'm a new user.

40 more posts or so needed? I'm off to politics to pick a fight :-/

bawn79

This came up in my facebook feed today - might be of interest to you P_ if you are in the general area.

Revealing the Hidden Archaeology Submerged Beneath the Connemara Coastline

Michael Gibbons will be giving us a talk on “Revealing the Hidden Archaeology Submerged Beneath the Connemara Coastline”, next Tuesday 20th October, at 7pm in AC204.

Michael currently works in heritage tourism, specializing in academic and cultural tourism to the Boyne Valley and the West of Ireland. Michael has extensive experience guiding groups both at home and abroad. As well as Ireland, he has led groups in the Sinai Peninsula, SW Turkey, Peru, the Outer Hebrides and has guided for some of the leading international cultural and activity tourism companies including Butterfield and Robinson and Martin Randall Travel. He remains an archaeologist in private practice, and makes regular contributions to archaeological and historical conferences in Ireland as well as delivering lectures to local archaeological and historical societies and contributing to archaeological and maritime programmes on local and national radio.

He is a member of the Nautical Archaeology Society and his current research interests include the archaeology of Irish uplands and islands, in particular the maritime pilgrimage tradition. He has carried out detailed research on some of the most important of these including Skellig Michael World Heritage Site, St MacDara’s Island and Caher Island. Recent archaeological work has included mapping the intertidal zone of the Galway and North-Burren Coast with a particular focus on the prehistoric midden complexes, vernacular quays, harbours and seaweed farms.

p___

bawn79 wrote: »

This came up in my facebook feed today - might be of interest to you P_ if you are in the general area.

Revealing the Hidden Archaeology Submerged Beneath the Connemara Coastline

Michael Gibbons will be giving us a talk on “Revealing the Hidden Archaeology Submerged Beneath the Connemara Coastline”, next Tuesday 20th October, at 7pm in AC204.

Michael currently works in heritage tourism, specializing in academic and cultural tourism to the Boyne Valley and the West of Ireland. Michael has extensive experience guiding groups both at home and abroad. As well as Ireland, he has led groups in the Sinai Peninsula, SW Turkey, Peru, the Outer Hebrides and has guided for some of the leading international cultural and activity tourism companies including Butterfield and Robinson and Martin Randall Travel. He remains an archaeologist in private practice, and makes regular contributions to archaeological and historical conferences in Ireland as well as delivering lectures to local archaeological and historical societies and contributing to archaeological and maritime programmes on local and national radio.

He is a member of the Nautical Archaeology Society and his current research interests include the archaeology of Irish uplands and islands, in particular the maritime pilgrimage tradition. He has carried out detailed research on some of the most important of these including Skellig Michael World Heritage Site, St MacDara’s Island and Caher Island. Recent archaeological work has included mapping the intertidal zone of the Galway and North-Burren Coast with a particular focus on the prehistoric midden complexes, vernacular quays, harbours and seaweed farms.

I'm Wicklow or east coast at least so I wouldn't make this.
The reason the site was so interesting is because it is so vast ( i must have walked out about 400 meters from the dunes, probably more and the uncovered part stretched from the curve in the beach back to the rocks beside the golf clubhouse), it's remote yet accessible, it's untouched as far as I can tell by anyone else- the sea had gone out very far as I said earlier and for all I know I was the first person to see them in millennia. For a pile of mud, sand and old sticks it was fairly exciting for me.

slowburner

p___ wrote: »

hi folks,
I was down in Doonbeg a few weeks ago,

While walking on the beach I came across a lot of black wood sticking out of the sand.
I walked down a bit and found many tree trunks and stumps- it went out for about 200 meters

I then found bog/peat laid down on top of that.

You could see the stratification because the sea is eroding they lot of it.

I found a bone in the lower level of the bog, beside a tree trunk- got pictures of it. Looks like a scapula- it's pretty big so i'd imagine that of a deer.
I also then found evidence of a midden under the bog at the level of the forest- shells packed in together- smaller ones inside of larger ones in stacks.
I had a look on the net, there's not a lot about this up yet. Apparently there have been a few of these uncovered on the west coast due to storms about a year ago. 7500 years old is the age put on those uncovered so far
Could also be due to Trump's protection work - boulders and rebuilding the dunes that surround his golf course

Not sure if I can upload photos but I will if I can..

It's a pretty cool site, does anyone know if it is being investigated? It strikes me as good opportunity to see what the land was like and possibly make some finds related to Mesolithic ireland

When you say 'tree trunks and stumps', do you mean that these are natural trees with roots, gnarled parts, bark - that kind of thing, and that they are not posts or anything man made?
Is there any discernible alignment?
The reason I ask is that there is a salmon weir shown on the 1st edition, 1838 OSI map. This weir was located around 150m NNW of Doonbeg beach and it is possible that the weir was preceded by timber fish traps, or that there were fish traps in other locations of the bay.
Prof. Aidan O'Sullivan (UCD) carried out a significant body of work on fish traps of the Fergus and Shannon estuaries between (roughly) 1993 and 2000.

The listing of middens landward of the pier (SMR CL046-040...) makes this a potentially very interesting place.

Donalde

The Doonbeg fish traps are built of stone and are still in situ and were being used until recently (if not still in use?).
There are similar areas of submerged tree trunks further north, near Quilty/Seafield, but what looks like bog, when dried is actually a fibrous mud.
Middens are are also visible at Caherrush, Fintra, Freagh, etc in the Miltown Malbay area.
The Annals mention a major inundation of the area in AD 800:
"There happened great thunder and lightening, on the day before the festival of Patrick
of this year, so that one thousand and ten people were killed in the territory of Corca-
Bhaiscinn and the sea divided the island of Fitha [Mutton]* into three parts." - AFM

muskyj

bawn79 wrote: »

This came up in my facebook feed today - might be of interest to you P_ if you are in the general area.

Revealing the Hidden Archaeology Submerged Beneath the Connemara Coastline

Michael Gibbons will be giving us a talk on “Revealing the Hidden Archaeology Submerged Beneath the Connemara Coastline”, next Tuesday 20th October, at 7pm in AC204.

Michael currently works in heritage tourism, specializing in academic and cultural tourism to the Boyne Valley and the West of Ireland. Michael has extensive experience guiding groups both at home and abroad. As well as Ireland, he has led groups in the Sinai Peninsula, SW Turkey, Peru, the Outer Hebrides and has guided for some of the leading international cultural and activity tourism companies including Butterfield and Robinson and Martin Randall Travel. He remains an archaeologist in private practice, and makes regular contributions to archaeological and historical conferences in Ireland as well as delivering lectures to local archaeological and historical societies and contributing to archaeological and maritime programmes on local and national radio.

He is a member of the Nautical Archaeology Society and his current research interests include the archaeology of Irish uplands and islands, in particular the maritime pilgrimage tradition. He has carried out detailed research on some of the most important of these including Skellig Michael World Heritage Site, St MacDara’s Island and Caher Island. Recent archaeological work has included mapping the intertidal zone of the Galway and North-Burren Coast with a particular focus on the prehistoric midden complexes, vernacular quays, harbours and seaweed farms.

where is this talk taking place? would love to attend.

slowburner

muskyj wrote: »

where is this talk taking place? would love to attend.

UCG 20th October 7pm AC204

Arsemageddon

Evidence for a tsunami type event was uncovered during a series of excavations of a Mesolithic midden at Fanore Beach in North Clare. The material deposited by this event covered the Mesolithic deposits and helped to protect them.

If the site the OP has found isn't a submerged forest then maybe it is related to this? It would be great to see some pictures.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/6000-year-old-settlement-poses-tsunami-mystery-193230.html

(I would have posted the excavation bulletins report but my computer is acting the maggot)

p___

slowburner wrote: »

When you say 'tree trunks and stumps', do you mean that these are natural trees with roots, gnarled parts, bark - that kind of thing, and that they are not posts or anything man made?
Is there any discernible alignment?
The reason I ask is that there is a salmon weir shown on the 1st edition, 1838 OSI map. This weir was located around 150m NNW of Doonbeg beach and it is possible that the weir was preceded by timber fish traps, or that there were fish traps in other locations of the bay.
Prof. Aidan O'Sullivan (UCD) carried out a significant body of work on fish traps of the Fergus and Shannon estuaries between (roughly) 1993 and 2000.

The listing of middens landward of the pier (SMR CL046-040...) makes this a potentially very interesting place.

had root systems, branches, tree trunks laid out flat. Over the top of this was the bog- definitely a bog too, it was spongy to walk on. You could still see the bark on it; if I was any use I could tell you what type of trees they were too.

p___

Arsemageddon wrote: »

Evidence for a tsunami type event was uncovered during a series of excavations of a Mesolithic midden at Fanore Beach in North Clare. The material deposited by this event covered the Mesolithic deposits and helped to protect them.

If the site the OP has found isn't a submerged forest then maybe it is related to this? It would be great to see some pictures.


(I would have posted the excavation bulletins report but my computer is acting the maggot)

I read that when I was down on Doonbeg beach while I was trying to figure out how old the landscape was that I was looking at. I reckon a tsunami is a bit far fetched. The area is extremely flat, I would imagine it was slowly submerged over time- it's likely it extends out quite a bit too- probably out to the headlands at either side of the bay at doonbeg. You can see rocks sticking up far out to see, so it looks to be quite a shallow area of sea.

Only 35 more posts and you'll see the pictures

p___

Donalde wrote: »

The Doonbeg fish traps are built of stone and are still in situ and were being used until recently (if not still in use?).
There are similar areas of submerged tree trunks further north, near Quilty/Seafield, but what looks like bog, when dried is actually a fibrous mud.
Middens are are also visible at Caherrush, Fintra, Freagh, etc in the Miltown Malbay area.
The Annals mention a major inundation of the area in AD 800:
"There happened great thunder and lightening, on the day before the festival of Patrick
of this year, so that one thousand and ten people were killed in the territory of Corca-
Bhaiscinn and the sea divided the island of Fitha [Mutton]* into three parts." - AFM

would be great to date the trees to see if it corresponds with that of the annals

p___

I finally got round to taking some photo's of the bones, the shells that were in the mud, some of the tree bark and some stones I took from the mud (can't remember why I took them now as they just like stones- they may have been my tools for the 'dig')
I'm going to upload them somewhere- what's the best way of getting the link to you guys?