Heritage Week 2024
The Discovery Programme team have just reached the end of Heritage Week 2024.
Heritage Week is a country-wide event run by the Heritage Council, celebrating Ireland’s cultural, built and natural heritage. The Heritage Council co-ordinate events that bring together organisations like the Discovery Programme with volunteers, community groups and heritage enthusiasts to share research, knowledge and experience.
Each year, you can find out what’s happening in Heritage Week on “What’s On” section of the website: https://www.heritageweek.ie/event-listings
This year, The Discovery Programme jumped in with both feet, with 4 events over the week in Co. Waterford, Co. Kildare, Co. Louth and Co. Donegal.
All of these outreach events were designed to share the results of research we have undertaken in these areas.
Heritage Week is a great opportunity to connect with local communities in places where we’ve been working.
The results we shared were from research including:
🔎 Geophysical survey
📸 Photogrammetry and 3D modelling
🌊 Coastal Zone Assessment
Our first outing was to Woodstown Viking Festival, co. Waterford. This fantastic event happens every year thanks to an ongoing collaboration between Waterford City and County Council, Abarta Heritage and local re-enactment society Déise Medieval. The Discovery Programme joined Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland at the event, to offer attendees some information on what was discovered at the Woodstown site.
The Viking Festival happens close to a Viking settlement site that was discovered in the early 2000s thanks to a road construction project, and has been under archaeological investigation ever since. Most recently, the Discovery Programme’s Documentation and Survey Archaeologist, Dr Susan Curran, completed geophysical survey across the entire site. As this work was completed in July, it was great to be able to get onsite and share the initial results straight away in August!
We had a warm and sunny day, with visitors accessing the festival from the Waterford Greenway on foot or by bike, with almost 1000 people coming to enjoy the festivities. Alongside our archaeological findings, there was plenty of Viking action, with re-enacted battles, cooking and crafts.
The DP team even got the chance to meet some feathered friends!
On Thursday of Heritage Week the Discovery Programme organised a Survey Outreach Day at Monasterboice graveyard, co. Louth.
This graveyard is managed by the Office of Public Works as it contains several medieval monuments, including a round tower and three ornate High Crosses. The site is bolstered by several proactive community groups, who maintain the graveyard and offer tours to visitors.
The Discovery Programme is no stranger to this site, as the Survey Team previously recorded Muiredach’s Cross (often described as the finest High Cross in Ireland) as part of an ongoing drive to record High Crosses across the country. The digital recording means we can create a digital 3D model of the cross, which can be used to examine carved details or even to create a printed 3D model. You can see all of our High Cross scans on our Sketchfab page: https://sketchfab.com/discoveryprogramme/collections/high-crosses-54b513c6f1f24e2f8447d146fbc600e3
The Survey Outreach event was designed with a dual purpose: to record the West High Cross, and to inform visitors about that process.
Thursday was a blustery morning, but the Survey Team set up the survey equipment whilst the Outreach Team put out Heritage Week flags and signage, along with 3D prints of previously recorded crosses. The weather held, and the day was attended by a stream of local people, overseas tourists and colleagues from a number of institutions.
Whilst we explained the process of photogrammetry and 3D modelling to visitors, we were also offered some interesting insights and local knowledge from attendees – including a photograph of the High Cross in the early 20th century that none of the team had seen before!
The photogrammetry was a success and a few weeks later the 3D models of the 2 crosses were complete. You can view them here:
West Cross: https://skfb.ly/prpss
Muiredach’s Cross: https://skfb.ly/prp9L
Thursday was a busy day for the team – that evening Dr Susan Curran headed down to Co. Kildare to offer a talk on our work at Dunmanogue Church and Graveyard. The talk was organised with Castledermot Local History Group, and offered the chance for the community to hear about research undertaken as part of the Heritage Council’s Adopt a Monument Scheme. Susan gave an overview of Dunmanogue, its history, and how we have been investigating it. The 30 attendees were then given a run-down of the results of the Discovery Programme’s UAV (drone) and Geophysical surveys at the site.
For our final event of Heritage Week 2024 we travelled to McSwyne’s Castle, Co. Donegal for the Killaghtee Heritage Festival. Members of the Discovery Programme team had been out on this stretch of coastline all week, undertaking Coastal Zone Assessments as part of an Irish Research Council funded project.
The Dunkineely Community group invited the Discovery Programme to attend Killaghtee Festival to share some of the results from the project. On Saturday of Heritage Week, a group of local residents gathered at McSwyne’s Castle to hear DP’s Landscape and Maritime Archaeologist Dr Edward Pollard explain the vulnerabilities of coastal heritage in an era of climate change and coastal erosion. He showed attendees some of the artefacts that had eroded out of cliff sections in the local area, and shared the process of Coastal Zone Assessment that we had been using the record and investigate the area.
The Discovery Programme team had a great time sharing our research for Heritage Week 2024, as we value the opportunity to talk to communities about our work and results. All of the events involved collaboration with a range of colleagues and organisations who all put in a lot of work to make them happen – so a big thank you to everyone involved!
Thank you to everyone who came along to these events – if you didn’t make it this year, we hope to see you next August!
