Of a Conservation Management Plan for the Woodstown Viking Site Is Timely and Very Welcome

WOODSTOWN VIKING SITE A Conservation Management Plan with Research and Interpretation Strategies for a National Monument in County Waterford. Neil Jackman Foreword The origins of Waterford owe much to Viking influence. The Vikings first settled in Ireland in the ninth century when they sailed their longships to the coast and upstream on the major rivers of Ireland, including the River Suir, settling at Woodstown which is believed to predate the development of Waterford City. These sites provided optimum conditions for the berthing of long ships and bridging point of rivers. Waterford is proud of, and celebrates, its Viking heritage. Reginald’s Tower exhibits artefacts discovered from the Woodstown excavations in 2003, the King of the Vikings Virtual Reality Experience opened in 2017 and an international Viking visitor attraction is planned to open in the city centre in 2023. The significance of the Woodstown site is clear by virtue of the number of artefacts that were discovered when just 5% of the site was excavated. These artefacts included a richly decorated warrior grave and coins linked to Samarkand in Uzbekistan and Wāsit in southern Iraq. The geographical extent of Viking trading is reflected in these finds and indicates the potential for further exciting discoveries. The publication of a Conservation Management Plan for the Woodstown Viking Site is timely and very welcome. This is a comprehensive, informative and ambitious plan that sets out the significance of the site, with a considered approach for further research, animation, interpretation and pragmatic management of the site. The location of the site along the Waterford Greenway presents an opportunity to provide access to, and participation in, public archaeology in tandem with an excavations and experimental archaeology programme. There is great potential for heritage tourism and expansion of living history events at the site as demonstrated by Déise Medieval during the Woodstown Viking Festival in Heritage Week. I wish to commend Neil Jackman and his team at Abarta Heritage for producing an excellent plan that is well researched and with great vision. The plan was prepared under the guidance of the Woodstown Steering Committee involving expertise from Transport Infrastructure Ireland, National Monuments Service, National Museum of Ireland, University College Cork, the Norwegian Embassy, Heritage Council, National Biodiversity Data Centre and Waterford Treasures, and facilitated by Heritage Officer, Bernadette Guest. Their expertise and input to the process has provided consensus on the future direction for the Woodstown Viking Site. Waterford City and County Council look forward to continuing to collaborate with national and international partners to achieve the potential outlined in this plan, and to conserve and promote Woodstown’s internationally significant Viking archaeological heritage. Cllr. Damien Geoghegan, Mayor, Waterford City & County Council 2020–2021 2 How this Report Works This report details a plan for the Conservation Management, Research Strategy and Interpretation of Woodstown Viking Site. Abarta Heritage were commissioned to carry out this work by Waterford City & County Council in 2019. The plan has been funded through the Heritage Council’s Heritage Plan Fund 2019 & 2020. By bringing together the conservation management, research and interpretation into one document, it is hoped that this plan will achieve a balance between protection, understanding and public awareness. The plan is split into key parts. The first section (Chapters 1, 2 and 3) deal with aspects such as the methodology of this report, the current context of the site (both physically and in terms of tourism and public attitudes towards the Vikings and archaeology in general) and the significance of Viking Woodstown. A proposed research strategy is offered in Chapter 4, and that naturally leads on to Chapter 5 that suggests how we tell the story discovered during the research. A practical conservation management strategy is discussed in Chapter 6 with factors such as access and how to protect the monument addressed, while Chapter 7 illustrates how the development of Viking Woodstown can benefit Waterford. A series of policies and objectives are detailed in Chapter 8, and the required actions are listed in Chapter 9. To make it easier to navigate, the different chapters are all colour coded. The colours are based on a National Museum of Denmark study of Viking-Age pigments.1 This plan is a foundation, but it should be considered to be a ‘living document’, that can be updated and expanded as the need arises. Acknowledgements The National Monument at Woodstown is one of the most important archaeological sites yet discovered in Ireland. However, despite its significance the monument is completely invisible, and appears as relatively flat pastureland on the banks of the River Suir. This Conservation Management Plan is an attempt to make the intangible, tangible. The plan is a continuation of the work of the Woodstown Working Group and Woodstown Viking Site Steering Committee. Throughout the process, the committee members were generous with their time, insights and expertise. I wish to thank all of them, and their colleagues who contributed to the report including – Bernadette Guest and John Brunnock (Waterford City & County Council), Ian Doyle (The Heritage Council), Ambassador Else Berit Eikeland and Counsellor Arne Follerås (Norwegian Embassy to Ireland), Eamonn McEneaney (Waterford Treasures), Maeve O’Callagan (National Monuments Service), Maeve Sikora (National Museum of Ireland), James Eogan (Transport Infrastructure Ireland), Órla Scully, Gerry Halley, Dr. Liam Lysaght & Dr Úna FitzPatrick (National Biodiversity Data Centre), John Sheehan and Nick Hogan (Department of Archaeology, University College Cork), and Ian Russell and ACSU for providing information about the artefactual assemblage. I also sincerely wish to thank the members of Déise Medieval, not only for their contribution to this report, but for their ongoing efforts to help people to understand and enjoy the story of our past. This report was written by Neil Jackman with the design and layout by Sara Nylund. Thanks are also due to Róisín Burke, Damian Shiels, Geni Murphy and Conor Ryan for their help and support. A number of the images in this report are from the original publication and we wish to thank Ian Russell (ACSU) and James Eogan (TII) for making them available for use here. All other images and figures in this report are by Abarta Heritage, unless otherwise credited. This publication was funded through the Heritage Council's Heritage Plan Fund 2019 and 2020. 1 https://natmus.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/Editor/natmus/historisk-viden/Viking/Vikingernes_farvepalet/Vikingetidens_ farvepalet_Rapport.pdf 3 Summary The discovery of the previously unknown site at of the city would help to firmly establish Waterford as a Woodstown in 2003, has had profound implications cultural capital of Ireland. Its location on the Waterford on our understanding of the earliest phases of Viking Greenway creates a signature landmark for the route, interaction with Ireland. This Conservation Management and this initiative perfectly complements the wonderful Plan is informed by consultation and best practice museums in the city along with adding another powerful and the previous work, reports and guidance of the asset to local heritage tourism assets like Mount Woodstown Viking Site Steering Committee. The Congreve Gardens and the Suir Valley Railway. Along plan details the significance of Woodstown, and it with the planned Viking village at the National Heritage offers a research strategy that will form a pathway Park in Wexford, the excavations and reconstructions at to a better understanding of the site and its context. Woodstown will establish a compelling Viking ‘product’ The plan offers interpretative and communications for the Ireland’s Ancient East brand that is developing strategies that will ensure that the story is engaging and under the remit of Fáilte Ireland. accessible to a variety of audiences, and it will identify potential funding sources that could help to achieve Woodstown should not become a Viking Disneyland, the strategies outlined in the plan. The plan considers designed only for the benefit and enjoyment of overseas biodiversity and natural heritage, and also assesses visitors. Nor should it become a place set apart for practical considerations such as land ownership, academic enquiry and archaeological research. Instead boundaries, protection of the archaeological remains it should become a place where academia, visitors and and public access. importantly, the local community, come together. A place where they can all derive benefit, understanding This plan is designed to consider the needs of the and enjoyment. This plan details an inclusive and archaeological monument and its natural environment participatory approach that will help to establish as well as the needs of visitors, and to find a balance a high degree of awareness within the region. Its between creating a place of education and research as implementation will help to develop important skills well as tourism and public engagement, a place that is and opportunities for the broader community, ensuring economically viable and a place of social inclusion. It that the Woodstown national monument is highly emphasises the importance of collaborative approaches valued locally – a factor of vital importance for the long and the opportunity afforded

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