Lambay Island
| Lambay Island Reachrainn |
||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Waters | Irish Sea | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 29 '23 " N , 6 ° 0' 57" W | |
|
||
| surface | 2.41 km² | |
| Highest elevation | Knockbane 126 m |
|
| Residents | 6th (2011) 2.5 inhabitants / km² |
|
Lambay Island ( Irish Reachrainn , older Reachra ) is an island up to 126 m high, surrounded on three sides by cliffs . It is located northeast of Dublin , six kilometers from the Portraine district of the coastal town of Donabate in County Fingal in the Irish Sea . With 241 hectares, it is the largest East Irish island. The Irish name Reachra was by the Normans by the Norse Lambay ( German "Sheep Island" replaced) because sheep to summer grazing from the mainland by the spring.
It is possible that the island, which the Roman Pliny the Elder also mentions, is marked on the map drawn up by the ancient Greek cartographer Ptolemy in 150 AD , albeit in the wrong place and under the name "Limnus" or Limni ( German "Snail" ).
Porphyry mining
Lambay Island was already around 7000 BC. BC in the Irish Mesolithic . The mining and processing of porphyry (porphyritic andesite ) on Lambay was investigated between 1996 and 2001 by Gabriel Cooney as part of the “Irish stone ax project”. The Neolithic mining site "The Eagle's Nest" produced numerous production residues, including a. Ax blanks , hammer and grindstones . The hammer stones consisted of granite , conglomerate and quartzite , the grindstones of sandstone and porphyry. The axes were shaped primarily by pecking. The mining in Eagle's Nest took place between 3600 and 3000 BC. Instead of Lambay is the only site on the British Isles with evidence of all stages of production up to the polishing of the axes. Finds have also been made from the Bronze and Iron Ages .
Buildings
At "Scotch Point" there are clues for a Promontory Fort and ancient burial mounds . In the sea in front of the island there seems to be walls of an enclosure. It is said that St. Columcille founded a monastery on Lambay around 530, which fell victim to the first Viking raid on Ireland in 795. One of the Sigtryggs (Irish: Sitrics) attested in Haithabu , probably the last named "Sygtrygg Seidenbart", who was king in Dublin between 989 and 1036 , is said to have granted the building of a church on Lambay. The only reference to this church can be seen today in a fountain called "Blessed Trinity" (blessed trinity) . In 1181 Johann Ohneland subordinated the island to the Archbishops of Dublin.
In the south of the church are the remains of a large enclosure, near the site surrounded by a moat, which may date from the 13th or 14th century. The beach north of the harbor has been eroded, as a result of which six and seven skeletons from the late Middle Ages were exposed in 1995 and 2002, respectively . The current church is from the beginning of the 20th century. It replaces a church that was built in the 1830s. Geophysical studies have shown that there is a mass grave in front of the church. It is believed that around 362 victims of the shipwreck of the RMS Tayleur in 1854 were buried here.
In the 16th century, the Archbishop of Dublin leased the island to John Challoner , Councilor and Mayor of Dublin. The condition was that he built a castle, a village and a harbor within six years. The Challoners owned Lambay until 1611, when the island went to William Ussher (who also owned Donnybrook Castle) and his heirs for 200 years . In the 17th century lead and copper mining was carried out here.
In the early 1690s Godert de Ginkell (1644-1703 - 1st Earl of Athlone ) brought 780 soldiers and 260 irregulars to Lambay, where they were held until the Treaty of Limerick was signed. A number died on the island. In 1860 the Irish farmers on Lambay were replaced by English and Scottish farmers. In 1905, the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens came to Lambay and restored the manor-style Lambay Castle . The island is now privately owned and a bird sanctuary.
literature
- G. Cooney: Lambay: an island on the horizon. In: Archeology Ireland. Volume 7, No. 4, 1993, pp. 24-28.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Table No. 11 Population of inhabited Islands off the coast, 2006 and 2011 . In: Central Statistics Office (Ed.): Population Classified by area . Dublin 2012, pp. 132-133 ( PDF file; 3.64 MB ( memento of October 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ))
- ^ Johann Jakob Egli : Nomina geographica. Language and factual explanation of 42,000 geographical names of all regions of the world. Friedrich Brandstetter, 2nd edition Leipzig 1893, p. 522
- ^ Cooney, G. 2005 Stereo porphyry: quarrying and deposition on Lambay Island, Ireland. In Topping, P./Lynott, M. (eds) The cultural landscape of prehistoric mines, Oxford: Oxbow 14-29
- ^ Cooney, G., 2002, So many shades of rock: Color symbolism and Irish stone axeheads. In: Andrew Jones / Gavin MacGregor (eds.) Coloring the past: the significance of color in archaeological research. Oxford: Berg, 4 ff.