Maritime Heritage

Recording and Protecting our Maritime Heritage

The sea has been a great highway throughout history, providing access from Ireland to Britain and mainland Europe, and eventually much further afield to the New World and the Far East. For an island people the coast is always an important area for defence, economic activity and trade. Over 9,000 years of human activity in Ireland has inevitably left archaeological remains along the coastline and on the sea-bed, and the study of these remains through maritime archaeology offers great potential to increase our understanding of the past. To protect and promote these sites EHS has established a Maritime Record and, in partnership with the University of Ulster at Coleraine, has set up a Centre for Maritime Archaeology to carry on survey of the coastal zone, foreshore and seabed and train future maritime archaeologists.