Historic Sites Battered by Storms

If you think we’ve been having a rough winter, then you haven’t heard what Ireland has been enduring—storm after storm with gale force winds. Waves that reached almost 40 feet tall  battering its coastline.  Major cities like Limerick and Cork flooded as rivers broke their banks.  Buildings damaged, thousands without electricity as fallen trees took out power lines.

Historic sites have also been a causality of the wild weather.  Dunbeg, an Iron Age fort located on the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry lost much of its western wall to the sea.  A 350 year old fort on Valentia Island also lost part of its wall.

In County Galway, Bunowen Castle, home to the pirate queen, Grace O’Malley had its enclosure undermined by the sea.

Fans of the Irish TV comedy Father Ted, might be dismayed to hear that The Plassey, the shipwreck in the opening credits was almost turned around in a gale and had it bow bent.

Another shipwrecked boat was victimized during the storm. The Sunbeam had been on Rossbeigh beach in Co Kerry since 1903.  The storm dislodged it and placed it on a sand dune.  Souvenir seekers were stripping the wreck with hammers and chisel.

Some sites, like the 7th century monastic Skellings, off the Kerry Coast, haven’t been evaluated yet because of the dangerous weather conditions.

But as the sea takes, she also gives.  Off the Connemara’s coast on Omey Island, a Neolithic bog was exposed by the tides.  Also discovered were two sets of medieval burial sites and traces of a sunken dwelling.