Dalkey Island

Prometheus

Just finished reading paper on Mesolithic and Neolithic life on Dalkey island.
Anyone know if its possible to visit the island?
Thanks in advance

dr gonzo

Prometheus wrote: »

Just finished reading paper on Mesolithic and Neolithic life on Dalkey island.
Anyone know if its possible to visit the island?
Thanks in advance

Yeh absolutely, I went fieldwalking on it. Absolutely gorgeous out there on a good day.

My understanding is that there are ferries at certain points in the year (perhaps summer?) but we actually had to organise our own transport when we were heading out. If needs be there are a fair few dive companies etc that operate out of DL that could bring you out too.

Maudi

Bullock harbour....a guy used to drop out and pick people up from there..im not sure if he still does but its a start..lets know how you get on.id be interested in going out myself.

Prometheus

Thanks for getting back lads.Really appreciate it.
Gonna look into this and try get out there this summer.

Maudi

Prometheus wrote: »

Thanks for getting back lads.Really appreciate it.
Gonna look into this and try get out there this summer.

Just got confirmation.its a lady that runs the boats out to dalkey isle.from bullock hbr. All day every day.

BFDCH.

Maudi wrote: »

Just got confirmation.its a lady that runs the boats out to dalkey isle.from bullock hbr. All day every day.

i was just out on dalkey island the other day, kayaked out to it from bullock harbor, it took about an hour to get out because of the tides but only about half an hour back.

because of sea erosion you can see a cross section of a midden right at the landing spot. you can still see the remains of the promontory fort on the island as well as the more obvious remains- church, barracks, martello tower.
My father goes out there fairly regularly, he's found also sorts of things - he reckons he found ancient human remains placed in between rocks in the neolithic(i think) midden. i gave a few examples into one of my lecturers in UCD but he couldn't tell. the remains were being eroded at the time (14 years ago) and he thinks someone came out and took them around that time. he had found flint scrapers and a few other tools too.

about a month ago he found a roman coin that had been dug up by a rabbit- they burrow into the midden and there are often large bones and flint in the spoil- the coin was similar to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Double_Centenionalis_Magnentius-XR-s4017.jpg
the fella was only in power for a year or so. he's given this over to the museum.

there's a large, flat almost boggy area in the center of the island above the church below the martello tower and not as far over as the barracks or nesting areas, it has a few boulders in it. does anyone know if it's significant or just a natural feature?
are there any links to articles about the island- the only place that i can remember reading anything significant about it was in the mountains to sea
also, related to the title i gave this, i had heard that the boat tours had stopped for insurance reasons. i believe you can still rent boats yourself from bullock harbor or you could get a kayak and head out that way- see it from the perspective of those who first settled there.

slowburner

Morning Ireland had an item on the chance discovery of a Roman coin on Dalkey island and a little about the recently recovered treasure hunted artefacts from Tipperary.
Podcast (eighth item down the list) here:

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_morningireland.xml