What is recorded here

Two alder stakes still stand ten metres apart on the eroding eastern shore of Canon Island, holding the ghost of a net that once caught river fish beside the abbey ruins. Dated to the late 1200s, the wooden markers survive only because the sea has taken the rest of the structure. They are not a monument but a functional scar, waiting for the tide to erase the last proof that people lived there.

On the E shore of Canon Island in the Fergus Estuary. Described by O’Sullivan et al. (2010) as follows: ‘The possible remains of a fishweir are located on the eroding med on the eastern shore of Canon Island, not far from where the ruins of the abbey lie. It consists of just two stakes c. 10m apart. These were probably used to hold a net or possibly are the remains of a more substantial wooden structure. The former is more likely given the nature of the other possible fishweirs found in the immediate vicinity. One of the stakes was sampled and this was identified as alder wood. One piece was submitted and returned a date of Cal. AD 1261-1288 (731+/-19BP).Two large timbers lie beside one of the stakes and it is not known if these are connected to the structure.’ (O’Sullivan et al. 2010, Appendix 1, 60-61, Canon Island 9) Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 9 October 2019

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