September 12, 2024

Work is under way to identify the origins of three historic shipwrecks that were discovered on Portmarnock Strand in Dublin over the summer.

The wrecks were exposed due to a shifting sandbank, which also exposed another wreck, which has not been visible for seven years.

The National Monuments Service (NMS), which is responsible for recording shipwrecks around Ireland, said the number of wrecks off the coast of Portmarnock is “unusually high”.

The discoveries were made after a local underwater photographer and drone operator Nigel Motyer was recording footage on the beach in late July and noticed the shape of a ship protruding from the sand.

He alerted the National Monuments Service, which keeps a register of shipwrecks off the Irish coast, and its staff inspected the area.

They determined that the wreck Mr Motyer had captured images of had been previously recorded in the Wreck Inventory of Ireland. It was last visible in 2017 and prior to that in the 1990s.

However, during the investigation, carried out by underwater specialists from the NMS, they discovered three new shipwrecks that had not been previously documented.

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