Gormley: Viking settlement artefacts to remain buried

MANY secrets of one of the country’s most successful Viking communities are to remain buried after the Minister for the Environment decided on only limited excavation of the hidden settlement.

A plan for research at the 1,000-year-old Woodstown site outside Waterford city is to be drawn up, but Minister John Gormley accepted the recommendation of a working group that the area not be fully excavated.

Only a portion of the site, which was discovered during work on the Waterford city bypass in 2003, has been uncovered, and has yielded almost 6,000 artefacts, but it is not known how many more could remain.

The working group said a full excavation could cost at least €10 million, for which there was no budget, and would likely require more skilled archaeologists than were available in Ireland, meaning the additional cost of recruiting abroad and the loss of resources for other worthy archaeological projects.

The route of the bypass was changed to move it away from the site and a group comprising the local authorities, the National Roads Authority and archaeological and museum experts have been working on a conservation plan since 2005. Their report, published at the weekend, confirms beliefs the area was populated by Scandinavian settlers in the 9th and 10th centuries and was a huge trading and manufacturing centre with some military presence.

Finds of silver, iron, lead, copper and other materials and tools show the area to have been busy with ship repair, crafts, textile production and other manufacturing while the personal items discovered in local graves confirm a high level of wealth among at least some of the residents.

The site, which is privately owned, has been declared a national monument, which requires two months’ notice of proposed works to be given to the minister, but no stronger protections were considered necessary.

However, the state is to explore the possibility of buying the site or of entering into some kind of guardianship arrangement with the landowner. A visitor centre is not recommended but the report states: “There may be scope at some stage in the future for the public to view research archaeologists working onsite, possibly from the tourist railway running alongside the site.”

The National Monument Service and Office of Public Works are to ensure appropriate fencing and signage is erected.