Sir, – I really enjoyed Áine Ryan's piece about our beautiful Atlantic coastline (An Irishwoman's Diary, June 19th). As a young archaeologist working then for the Office of Public Works, I excavated the majestic Iron Age promontory fort at Dunbeg for three months in the summer of 1977. Incredibly, we only lost one day's work to weather in all that time. These promontory forts are still somewhat of an enigma.
Back then, I was also worried about coastal erosion and how it would impact on the site, but even if the State had invested large sums to protect it, the ever-mighty sea would still have eventually eroded the land around the edges of the fort. The sad fact now is that the most recent erosion has almost completely destroyed much of the northern dry-stone side wall of the complex entrance-way into its interior. But at least we have plans and archaeological data relating to this fine site. – Yours, etc,
Prof TERRY BARRY,
Department of History,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.