Downpatrick Head - Ireland

Downpatrick Head - Ireland

Culture,Tourism

This reconstruction was part of the STRATUS Project 2021. Our view is that connecting with emergent digital technologies and changing digital literacies is key to re-energising our towns, villages and communities. Stratus will use disruptive VR technologies to enable exploration of the Past, Present and Future, maximising societal benefits from natural and cultural heritage. - https://stratus.interreg-npa.eu/ Just a few miles north of Ballycastle, on the edge of the earth overlooking the wild Atlantic, lies the rugged, windswept outcrop of Downpatrick Head. Now a Signature Discovery Point on the famed Wild Atlantic Way, the area provides unparalleled views of the ocean, including a unique vantage point over the Stags of Broadhaven. A majestic sea stack rises tower-like from the sea, with its centuries of layered rock providing shelter to thousands of nesting sea birds.

is51102025

2021

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Reconstruction

1542

In Copyright (InC)

current,54.325509628010145,-9.343598484992983;

Open Virtual Worlds Team University of St Andrews

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In the Stratus project, we will use VR to enhance visitor experiences, help direct the flows of visitors to tourist sites and inform policy. We will push the limits of VR today to enable its potential to be realised in the future. We will develop VR solutions that enhance and integrate exploration of cultural and natural heritage. This will bring together real-world media (aerial, 360, 3D, and stereoscopic) with virtual world media, enabling new perspectives on natural and cultural heritage to enrich onsite experiences and inform digital narratives.

There is a landscape of military archaeological and historical remains on the headland with surprisingly far-flung links abroad. A medieval or post-medieval promontory fort on the east side of the headland gave the name Dun Phadraig or Patrick’s fort, while Dun Briste, the broken fort, suggests that another fort existed before being lost to erosion ( or Patrick’s crozier). Poll a’ Sean Tine was the scene of a tragic loss of life of rebels who had joined the French in Killala in 1798 and who were hiding out on ledges at sea level when the English redcoats were rounding up participants after the surrender by the French. Military remains from World War II include the watchtower and EIRE marker, which were used by our Defence Forces to guard our neutral territory. Except we were ‘neutral on the side of the Allies’ and daily monitored the Allies’ flying boats from Lough Erne as they flew along the Sligo and Mayo coast, having taken the shortcut of the Ballyshannon corridor to get more rapidly to the protection duties for the convoys approaching Europe. - Dr Seamas Caulfield.

Michelle Killeen. Danny O Toole (Mayo County Council) Dr. Seamas Caulfield

Iain Oliver, Sarah Kennedy, Catherine Cassidy, Alan Miller

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