Rough Island and Island Hill Panorama, County Down

Details

Published: Friday, 22 January 2016 12:06

We took a trip out to the Island Hill car park on one of those wintery blustery January days that we seem to having more often or not these days! We got permission from the Ards and North Down Council and informed Newtowards airport that we would be flying up to the maximum legal height of 400ft, did our onsite survey, risk assessment and setup a cordon at the top end of the car park. The panorama is created from 20 or so automated still photographs taken from our UAV. Rough Island is joined to the mainland at Island Hill by a causeway that is quite often covered at high tide.

We noticed that the south-west facing edge of the island had been heavily eroded by the winter gales and the current very high spring tide. You can see how much the grass has slumped over the edge.

We know that there has been human activity on the island since Mesolithic times (6000 to 10,000 years ago) by the finds of small worked flint scrapers and oyster shell middens and even evidence of industrial activity dating from medieval times. 

Rough Island

Click image to enlarge

Mesolthic Flint Thumb Scraper

Click image to enlarge

Mediveal Industrial Slag

Click image to enlarge

Click and Hold to Move around | Scroll wheel to zoom | Best Viewed Fullscreen