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Unusual object on Rutland Island

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  • 08-10-2014 10:47pm
    #1
    Murray007
    Registered Users Posts: 249 ✭✭


    I visited Aranmore Island regularly as a child as I had family living there. Every summer we would be dropped off by my uncle on Rutland Island in Burtonport harbour for a day on its beautiful beach and a picnic.

    There was a huge round object on the beach that faces Aranmore island and it has always fascinated me as to what it was.

    The locals either didn't know or just didn't want to tell a child.

    Does anyone know what it was?


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    #2
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 33,106 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    A bomb?


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    #3
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Most likely a buoy of some sort.


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    #4
    Murray007
    Registered Users Posts: 249 ✭✭Murray007


    NIMAN wrote: »
    A bomb?

    Have you read my thread?


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    #5
    Murray007
    Registered Users Posts: 249 ✭✭Murray007


    MYOB wrote: »
    Most likely a buoy of some sort.

    It was huge, it was one third submerged in the sand (approx) and was over the height of my head as an eight year old child. So three foot or more above the sand.

    It was metal of some sort and rusty.

    My parents speculated that it was a bomb (persumbly they felt it was difussed as they allowed us to play near it). They said the Donegal cost was mistaken for Belfast on at least one occasion by the Germans during the war. This might be rubbish but that is my memory of the conversation.


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    #6
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Buoy bases can actually be that big.

    I've never actually seen it (being from Arranmore) but I'll ask my Dad who'd remember there longer ago for obvious reasons.


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    #7
    gozunda
    Registered Users Posts: 18,996 ✭✭✭✭gozunda


    NIMAN wrote: »
    A bomb?

    Could it have been a deactivated floating mine from WW2 that were occasionaly washed up along the coast ?

    http://www.geograph.ie/photo/2595358


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    #8
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 33,106 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Murray007 wrote: »
    Have you read my thread?

    You said 'bomb' first.;)


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    #9
    Murray007
    Registered Users Posts: 249 ✭✭Murray007


    NIMAN wrote: »
    You said 'bomb' first.;)

    Yes, that is what it looked like.


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    #10
    muffler
    Registered Users Posts: 45,835 ✭✭✭✭muffler


    Mod note: Its a bit alarmist to post a thread with the title "Bomb on Rutland Island" That was stated as being factual, almost, and I dont think it helps anyone by posting misleading info so I have changed the thread title to something more appropriate.

    Cheers


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    #11
    Tabnabs
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 15,695 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tabnabs


    Did it look like one of these

    article-0-0D09BCF500000578-249_472x351.jpg

    or

    _57695920_buoy_beach.jpg

    one of these?


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    #12
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    My Dad doesn't remember either, annoyingly.


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    #13
    Murray007
    Registered Users Posts: 249 ✭✭Murray007


    It was rusty like the bottom of the second photo but round like to top one (no spikes though).

    Strangely, my uncle who was from Aranmore was unaware of it when we mentioned it to him and wasn't interested at all in it.

    There was someone who used the island for putting sheep on it. I wonder who that was, he would probably have the best memory of an unusual object on the beach.

    I hope it wasn't my imagination :confused:


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    #14
    Murray007
    Registered Users Posts: 249 ✭✭Murray007


    http://www.ria.ie/getmedia/dbf56eee-2bac-4a1d-9af5-3c86c26e039b/Forsythe_201003.pdf.aspx

    The above linked archeological survey of the island points to the instability of the sand dunes on the west of the island. It quotes
    ‘

    As the blowing sand continues to infuse the places of Rutland*in the same

    ratio they have done for these last 7 years your lordship

    . . .must be prepared to

    hear of their becoming totally unproductive and waste altogether

    ’ (NLI Ms.

    35,392/12). In March 1822 Forster wrote

    ‘ . . . it [sand] is now 20 feet high close

    to the door of the sailors inn [

    sic] and has rendered nine-tenths of the island

    a desert. I must fear in a little time the whole island must be abandoned.

    ’

    It could be that the object was exposed and recovered over a relatively short period of time hence my uncle (and others) apparently not knowing about it. It was noticable that when you walked on the beach the sand would sink three to four inches under foot as you walked. This also suggests that the sand shifted regularly.

    It quotes above that 9/10ths of the island was a desert, when I was there it would have been 1/10 sand and 9/10 rough grassland again highlighting the changing conditions over time.

    While the place has the feel of a deserted island now, the link above demonstrates that the Island was at the centre of activity for a large fishing fleet in the nineteenth centry.

    Also when I was googling it this morning, I noticed there are reports of an armada ship wreck being found in the last few years in Rutland Harbour. There was also a programme on last night on TV3 which mentioned that activity relating to the battle of the atlantic in WW2 was being monitored from the Donegal coastline.

    So the fact that there may be some relics from all of that activity on the island is more than probable.


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    #15
    Kettleson
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,047 ✭✭✭Kettleson


    Sounds similar to the buoy/marker at Rosses Point beach Sligo.

    http://www.geograph.ie/photo/1625596

    Only a few years ago it was a lot more exposed.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/rossespoint/


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    #16
    Murray007
    Registered Users Posts: 249 ✭✭Murray007


    Kettleson wrote: »
    Sounds similar to the buoy/marker at Rosses Point beach Sligo.

    http://www.geograph.ie/photo/1625596

    Only a few years ago it was a lot more exposed.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/rossespoint/

    That's exactly what it looked like, thanks.


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    #17
    Kettleson
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,047 ✭✭✭Kettleson


    No probs. There is a wee bit more info here on the Rosses point buoy.

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=74725629

    And a smaller one still in use.

    http://inspirationinaphoto.com/2014/04/02/old-sea-buoys/


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