Thursday 30 July 2009

Chapel Island Dig



I spent a few hours with many other National Trust volunteers on Chapel Island (above) today. Chapel Island lies directly west of Greyabbey in County Down. This is a small island in Strangford Lough, barely a dozen acres I imagine, with the remains of a ruined chapel connected to Movilla monastery.

Strangford Lough has another island of the same name further south, beside Jackdaw Island and near Audley's Castle.

At low tide, the island is accessible by foot from the mainland, the short walk taking about fifteen minutes.

All that remains of the church is a pile of stones spread across a small area; and it's totally obscured by briar, nettles and other weeds. Our task today was to partially clear the area in preparation for an archaeological dig later in the year.

I had to leave the party shortly after two o'clock in order to get back to Belfast for three. I stopped off at the Asda petrol station and re-fuelled, their price being 99.9p per litre.

The aerial photograph atop - courtesy of Fat Tony.

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