Strangford Lough: An Archaeological Survey of the Maritime Cultural Landscape.
Author: McERLEAN, Thomas, McCONKEY, Rosemary & FORSYTHE, Wes.
Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2003 (reprint with corrections). xxvi, 689 pages. Illustrated. Hardback.
Strangford Lough in County Down is one of only three statutory Marine Nature Reserves in the UK and has been officially designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. For thousands of years, however, its appeal was much more practical. Its vast natural harbour provided refuge for seafarers seeking shelter from the notoriously dangerous Irish Sea and the fertility of its land and the richness of its wildlife proved a strong attraction for human settlement.
The high quality of archaeology around the lough has been recognised for many years. From 1995 to 2000 Northern Ireland’s internationally respected Environment and Heritage Service, conscious that the shore and seabed of the lough were hiding many more secrets, undertook a pioneering survey of the maritime cultural landscape.
The results of the survey are truly groundbreaking, many of them challenging our preconceptions about the knowledge and skills of our ancestors - excavations at Nendrum, for instance, revealed a seventh-century tidal corn-mill that demonstrated a previously unknown level of engineering sophistication.
This beautifully illustrated book, presenting the survey results in a readily accessible form, will not only add to our appreciation of Strangford’s past but will also broaden the way we look at Ireland’s maritime heritage.
ISBN: 0856407232
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