On the River Boyne, in the republic of Ireland, near Drogheda, a team from the Boyne Fishermen's Rescue and Recovery Service came across an interesting discovery when they were out on one of their regular trips to remove shopping trolleys and other debris from the river. Sticking out of the mud was what appeared to be the remains of a log boat, believed to be thousands of years old.
     Expertise was called in to investigate, in the shape of specialist underwater archaeologist Karl Brady, from the Department of arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. He noticed that there were oval shapes on the top edge of the exposed section. "Such features are very rare", he said, "I have seen them on some boats found in Northern Ireland and Britain but not Ireland. They could have been used for holding oars."
     The wood has been kept in a good state of preservation in the mud and there are no early plans to remove it. An attempt to date the find will be left until some time towards the end of the year.

Edited from Irish Examiner (13 May 2013)