Introduction: Help Us Write the History of Achill Island
“Having a seat at the table and an acknowledged voice matters far more to local communities than being invited to hear foreigners talk to them about local cultural heritage and what it should mean to them.” Alex Knodell, 2009 Hello! My name is Faith Walker and I am a third-year university student from America. During […]
Pot-boilers, limpets, and wine bottles: Digging Caraun Point 2018
What was it like to live on an island off Ireland’s Atlantic coast in the eighteenth century? Popular images of this place and time are often grim. The looming spectre of the mid-ninteenth century Famine, and echoes of the Cromwellian dispossessions of the 1650s colour our perceptions of the period. How did people really experience […]
Illuminating the past: Experimenting with rush lights
By Bridgit Lee Working here at the Achill Archaeological Field School on early modern vernacular housing for the past two summers, one of the constant questions for me was how were these houses lit? Of course there were the open fires in the houses that would have provided some light to the house but what […]
New publication: Digging the ponies of Dooagh Beach
Achill Archaeological Field School are delighted to announce the publication of our 2014 excavation at the ‘pony graveyard’ in Dooagh in The Journal of Irish Archaeology (Vol. XXV, 2016). The article is co-authored by site director Stuart Rathbone, osteologist David Blauvelt and Dr Theresa McDonald. In 2014 heavy storms around Achill exposed a peat bed […]
Launch of New Achill Archaeology Guidebook
Theresa McDonald’s new book, A Guide to Archaeological and Historical Sites on Achill, Achillbeg and the Corraun Peninsula, was launched last night in Dooagh by well-known archaeologist Michael Gibbons. The launch was organised by Achill Historical and Archaeological Society and included a fascinating lecture by Michael Gibbons on the history of seaweed farming in eighteenth and nineteenth […]
Summer 2017 at the Cromlech Tumulus: A new fulacht fia for Slievemore
It has been a fantastic summer on Slievemore. During July and August we carried out our fourth and final season at the wonderful ‘Cromlech Tumulus’ site on the south-facing slopes of the mountain. In our eight short weeks on the mountain we discovered a new monument (a Bronze Age fulacht fia) and potentially pushed back […]
New Book Review: Cattle in ancient and modern Ireland. Farming practices, environment and economy
New book review of Cattle in ancient and modern Ireland. Farming practices, environment and economy featuring a chapter by Achill Field School founder Dr Theresa McDonald. The book review is by Nigel T. Monaghan, and is published in the Irish Naturalists’ Journal. Michael O’Connell, Fergus Kelly and James H. McAdam (eds) 2016. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon […]
Heritage Week 2017: What’s on in Achill?
It’s August which means Heritage Week! Coordinated by the Heritage Council, National Heritage Week (19-27 August) is Ireland’s most popular cultural event and this year over 450,000 people are expected to participate in over 2,000 heritage events around the country. As part of our ongoing public archaeology programme Achill Field School are holding a walking tour […]
