Category Archives: Community Archaeology

Heritage Week 2014 – Part 1 – Carry out your own Geophysical Survey!

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Mayfield Lake, Wetlands and its Archaeological Heritage.

Earthsound director Dr James Bonsall gave a talk and guided walk on the archaeological heritage of Mayfield Lake and Clare Lake, Claremorris, as part of Heritage Week, in the Mayfield Community Building, in Claremorris on the 28th August.

The local audience joined in and told great stories of old place names and memories of fishing in Mayfield Lake. After the talk, James led the audience out to McMahon Park to let them carry out their own archaeological survey.

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© 2014 Earthsound Geophysics Ltd.

Heritage Week 2014 – Part 2 – Meeting the Minister at Archaeofest

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Earthsound’s Dr. James Bonsall attended the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland Archaeofest event in Merrion Square, Dublin for the official launch of Heritage Week.

James encouraged visitors to carry out a geophysical survey in the park whilst explaining how instruments are used to detect buried archaeological features.

Among those that collected data were Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys TD, who was very interested in the use of geophysical data on Irish infrastructure projects.

© 2014 Earthsound Geophysics Ltd.

Lecture at the Athy Heritage Centre-Museum

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Town Walls and Castles – Recent Geophysical Discoveries in Athy.

Earthsound director Heather Gimson gave a lecture in the Athy Heritage Centre-Museum yesterday, County Kildare. Heather presented the results of our research on the Athy Town Walls and Castles which we’ve been working on for a number of years. This year we focused on using Ground Penetrating Radar and Electrical Resistivity Tomography over the Town Walls and Black Castle Tower which are located under a number of gardens and yards. The lecture was well attended and the audience included the Mayor of Athy.

© 2013 Earthsound Geophysics Ltd.

Lecture in Athy – ‘What is Archaeological Geophysics?’

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What is Archaeological Geophysics?

Earthsound director Heather Gimson gave a lecture in the Athy Heritage Centre-Museum yesterday, County Kildare. Heather is working in Athy this week looking for evidence of the Town Walls and Castles using archaeological geophysical techniques. Heather explained the aims of the research and how geophysical surveys actually work. Many of those that attended the lecture are part of the project – the work currently involves surveying a number of peoples back gardens and yards to trace the medieval archaeology.

Heather will return to Athy in November to present the findings of the research.

© 2013 Earthsound Geophysics Ltd.

Earthsound’s Geophysicist Presents a New 5-part Radio Show

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Earthsound’s Darren Regan has written, presented, produced and directed a new 5-part radio show, The Lie of the Land, for Claremorris Community Radio (CCR FM).

CCR FM won a Broadcasting Authority of Ireland award, supported by the Sound & Vision III scheme, which funds high quality programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience. CCR FM approached Earthsound to develop the project which examines the history of Mayo, both geological and archaeological. Darren, who studied Applied Archaeology at IT Sligo has been working as a geophysicist for Earthsound Archaeological Geophysics since 2010 and drew on his extensive experience working on a variety of archaeological sites across Ireland to research and produce The Lie of the Land.

Mayo’s geological landscape tells a story of our land’s connection with place and cultures, which today lie oceans apart. The long and turbulent geological history of the West of Ireland, which stretches back hundreds of millions of years, contains tales of colliding continents and the fusing of North America with parts of this island.

Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo

Darren takes listeners on a journey via reports from the prehistoric landscape around Croagh Patrick, to Céide Fields, Ballintubber Abbey, Iron Age cashels in Kilmovee and Bronze Age burial tombs in Irishtown.

Claremorris Community Radio’s new five-part series, The Lie of the Land, exposes the history of Mayo, both geological and archaeological. The show features interviews with archaeologists Richard Crumlish, Chris Read and Michael Gibbons, geologist Matthew Parkes, Fr. Frank Fahey, Earthsound directors James Bonsall and Heather Gimson and many more.

Produced, written, directed and presented by Darren Regan, this informative and enthralling series will start broadcasting on Saturday August 13th, at 2pm on Claremorris Community Radio. If you miss the show, don’t worry, The Lie of the Land will also be repeated on Fridays at 5pm.

© 2013 Earthsound Geophysics Ltd.

Youth Eco-Challenge Claremorris – A free 12 week Summer Event

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Earthsound directors James Bonsall and Heather Gimson have been helping to run Youth ECO-Challenge Claremorris – an environmental and heritage project at Mayfield Lake and Wetlands, Claremorris, Co. Mayo, Ireland – with Aine Carr of Clar I.R.D., artist Mary Noonan and Claremorris Community Radio. James, Heather and Aine recruited students from local schools and implemented the programme.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

The twelve week project gave 15-17 year old students from St. Colman’s College and Mount Saint Michael Secondary School an opportunity to develop their own environmental awareness project in the Claremorris area through experiential learning. A range of activities were laid on and as the project developed the students created their own outputs via artwork, videos and podcasts that reflected their experiences.

The students also filmed a video of their efforts to transform a disused water reservoir (see video below) at the ‘Growing Locally’ community garden. The work was carried out as part of a practical action project, supervised by local artist Mary Noonan.

The programme was offered in co-operation with Claremorris Community Radio, Earthsound Archaeological Geophysics and Clar I.R.D., Claremorris. It was funded by the LEARGAS European Commission’s Education and Culture Directorate General’s ‘Youth in Action’ Programme and ECO-UNESCO ‘Clubs in Action’ Programme sponsored by Toyota.

© 2012 Earthsound Geophysics Ltd.