PRESS RELEASE: Drumclay crannog wins prestigious Rescue Dig of the Year award for 2016

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Nora Bermingham and Caitríona Moore accept Current Archaeology’s prestigious Rescue Dig of the Year award for 2016, for their work on the Drumclay crannog

Rescue-Dig_Aerial-Cam
Nora Bermingham (left) and Caitriona Moore (centre) with Matt Symonds, editor of Current Archaeology, after collecting the award for Rescue Dig of the Year in the 2016 Current Archaeology Awards.
(Photo: Current Archaeology/Aerial-Cam)

The award for Rescue Dig of the Year was accepted by Dr Nora Bermingham and Caitríona Moore who carried out the rare excavation of a crannog (a medieval artificial island) in Co. Fermanagh on behalf of the Department of the Environment and Department for Regional Development in Northern Ireland. The well-preserved remains of timber structures and thousands of artefacts uncovered at this important site, are set to revolutionise our understanding of crannog life.

The prize forms part of the celebrated Current Archaeology Awards given each year by Current Archaeology, the UK’s leading archaeology magazine. TV personality and archaeologist Julian Richards (of Meet the Ancestors fame) announced the winners of the 2016 awards on 26 February, during the Current Archaeology Live! event, held at the University of London’s Senate House, which saw a record number of ticket sales for the conference, and was attended by over 400 people.

Nora Bermingham said‘Thank you so much to everyone who voted for us. This was a tiny little rural excavation in Northern Ireland, and we’re thrilled to have won. Doing Drumclay was the experience of a lifetime, and I don’t think it will be matched – it was a real privilege to direct that excavation and see the wonders that came out of it. We had a wonderful crew, and we would also like to thank the Department of the Environment and Department for Regional Development in Northern Ireland.’ 

 

Notes for Editors: Current Archaeology Awards

  • The awards are voted for by subscribers and members of the public, and recognise the outstanding contributions to our understanding of the past made by the people, projects, and publications featured in the pages of Current Archaeology over the previous 12 months.
  • A record number of votes were cast in the awards: almost 14,000, compared to 8,000 last year.
  • The 2016 Current Archaeology Award for Rescue Dig of the Year was sponsored by Export and General Insurance Services Ltd.
  • The major feature ‘The Drumclay crannog-dwellers: revealing 1,000 years of lakeside living’ was published in Current Archaeology 299. The finds from the early stages of the excavation also appeared in CA 275.
  • Current Archaeology was launched in 1967, and will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year.

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