Can you dig it, Bremore?

While the castle itself dates back to 16th and 17th centuries, settlement on this site is thought to go back a thousand years beyond that to the time of St Molaga, a figure credited with many things including introducing the art of bee-keeping to Ireland.

All those layers of history and more will be exposed as the volunteers dig further into the ground to see what treasure and secrets the site offers up.

Heading the team is the only full-time community archaeologist in the country, Christine Baker from Skerries who works for Fingal County Council under an initiative supported by the Heritage Council which it's hoped will pave the way for similar positions to open up around the country and help foster a greater local and national appreciation of our heritage.

Christine has led a similar 'Big Dig' project at Swords Castle for the last two summers and will return to that site again in August for what has become known as 'Swords Castle: Digging History'.

But for now, her focus and the focus of over 80 volunteers is on the site of Bremore Castle and she told the Fingal Independent why the site was chosen.

The Fingal community archaeologist said: 'We were asked to look at Bremore. The whole point of these community digs is to re-engage people with buildings and monuments that have been inaccessible for a period of time so this is one is part of the development of Bremore Castle and the Regional Park.

'The dig will inform some of those works. We are in the Walled Garden so when they reconstruct the Walled Garden and develop it, the information we will have found there will inform that. We have an environmental specialist on board so we might be able to find out what kind of plants were grown there and hopefully they might be replanted when it's developed. Also we want to find out what's underneath there.'

Talking about the nature of the site and what might be found there the Skerries archaeologist said: 'The site goes right back to the 5th and 6th Centuries when St Molaga is supposed to have been there who brought bee-keeping to Ireland and the church is still called St Molaga's.

'But the remains of the castle are from a 16th and 17th Century fortified house so we may find an earlier castle. We know it was burnt down in the Cromwellian wars so we may find cannonballs. I know when they built Cardy Rock estate in the next field, they did find a cannonball there. Maybe we'll find some medieval pottery or maybe even some bodies, we just don't know.'

Christine has been bowled over by the response to the council's call for volunteers for the project. She said: 'We've got 80-odd people signed up for it already and there's a huge enthusiasm for it. People really don't get a chance this so when the opportunity arises, they get very excited about it. We have a couple of the stalwarts from the Swords dig but most of them are new and from around the Balbriggan and Skerries area.

'It is very much about focusing on the locality and getting the local community involved and we have quite a number from the new communities that have settled in Balbriggan involved and that happened in Swords as well which is great.'

The community archaeologist said that Bremore Castle 'is very visible in the landscape but hasn't been accessible up to now so this is a great way of having people come in and get familiar with it again'.

Meanwhile, the local archaeologist is also looking forward to continuing 'Digging History' at Swords Castle from August 18 to September 6 and said: 'We are doing a third year in Swords in August. It is literally back by popular demand - I can't walk down the street in Swords without people asking me when it's coming back. We are moving down the slope this year and following ditches we found last year and just trying to find out what is going on in a different area of the precinct.

'We have learned a huge amount about Swords Castle. In terms of research, we have pushed the dates for activity in that area back over 200 years. The fact that there was this burial enclosure there beforehand wasn't really well known and we are now mapping that. We found out that there were several more buildings there, some of them in stone and quite fancy. We know where they were butchering their animals and storing their seeds - we built a whole picture of life there that nobody knew before and we hope to do the same thing at Bremore.'

So what might turn up at Bremore? Christine said: 'We have done a geophysical survey of the area in Bremore and there are indications of what we call 'anomalies'. Their might be a well and possibly some garden paths and there's some mystery objects and we are going to investigate those. How deep we go depends on what we find.

'Whatever we find, it is all information and we will end these two weeks knowing more about Bremore Castle than we did before - I can guarantee that.'

Whatever the volunteers find will later be displayed for the community to enjoy. Christine explained: 'In Bremore we are going to have a family day in autumn to bring kids and families in and show them what we found. I'm also planning to have a graveyard clean-up there in the St Molaga's burial ground and we hope to get the community involved in that.'

The projects at Swords and Balbriggan are just two among many community archaeology projects Christine hopes can be taken on in the county. She explained: 'As a community archaeologist, I want to broaden out these events to what the community want. People can contact me in relation to any monument or projects or sites they might have in mind themselves. I'm there to facilitate the interest communities have in their own heritage and archaeology.

'I'm full-time since May. Fingal County Council have been very progressive in being the first and only local authority to have a full-time community archaeologist, supported by the Heritage Council. I think it's something that's hoped will be rolled out to other areas.

'I suppose I piloted the community archaeologist concept on a contract basis for the last two years and that has proved to be very successful and Swords Castle: Digging History has been an award-winning project so I think that has shown people what can be done. Before, archaeology was seen as the problem that could hold up a project but I think we've demonstrated it's a resource and something people really care about and it's something that is good for communities in terms of interactions and it's damn good fun. All of those things have opened people's eyes to the possibilities.

'Honestly, the amount of people on these digs that tell me it's a dream come true - it's such a buzz. It's really fantastic to see people so happy to do it.'

One of the really exciting projects Christine will be spending more and more time on in the coming years is the ancient site at Drumanagh in Loughshinny which is now in public hands after the council acquired it and the community archaeologist believes the potential of that site is 'huge'.

She said: 'It's such an important archaeological site so we would like to find out more about it and share that with people as well as making the Martello Tower secure and look at the future of that as well. There's a lot of challenges with it but the opportunities are huge.'

Speaking about the importance of connecting communities with their past through projects like this week's dig in Bremore Castle, Christine said: 'I suppose archaeology is about people so we are trying to connect the people of the past with the communities of today and I think that's important for a sense of ourselves and our pride of place and a sense of place. Connecting with the past is very important for a community and archaeology is a great way to do it.'