Aerial Archaeology in Ireland - The Heritage Council

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2 PRINCIPAL SOURCES OF AIR PHOTOGRAPHY IN IRELAND
2.1 Guides to Air Photographic Collections
There is no general guide to air photographic collections in Ireland. However, the second edition of a directory of accessible
collections of aerial photography held in the United Kingdom (NAPLIB 2001) includes a number of collections which cover parts
of the Irish Republic as well as Northern Ireland. There is no comparable guide to air photographic collections held in Ireland.
In compiling this source, responses to questionnaires were widely circulated over a two-year period, with additional investigation
of sources and detail added by NAPLIB members and colleagues from many professional associations. The Directory identifies
many new collections over the previous edition and demonstrates a great diversity of topics tackled by aerial photography.
These range from marine navigation to the coverage of sporting events, as well as the staples of recording the built and natural
environment which dominated the earlier edition. The Directory is organised by United Kingdom Post Code, source name and
dates of cover. It also provides guidance on the interpretation of aerial photography, tracing the locations of photography
from long disbanded organisations and on copyright clearance.
2.2 Public Archival Material
National Monuments Section of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local
Government
The National Monuments Section of the DoEHLG holds a range of air photographic archival material (e.g. Figures 5, 6, 19, 24, 26,
27, 28, 44, 51, 55). This collection comprises:
• Prints of OSi’s full national coverage through black-and-white aerial photography at 1:30,000 scale,
flown in 1974.
• Aerial colour photography of Co. Dublin flown at c. 1:5,000 scale in the 1980s, and some other vertical
aerial photography of limited geographic areas (e.g. East Limerick West/Tipperary medium altitude
survey — Doody 2001).
• Prints of relevant photographs from a variety of archive sources (chiefly GSI, OSi, CUCAP; some BKS),
and material taken in the course of archaeological survey for the Archaeological Survey of Ireland
by a number of individuals. These prints are mainly black-and-white (both vertical and oblique), with
some oblique colour photography. They are held, together with ground-level photographs, within the
individual site files for the SMR.
• A separate collection of photographs, taken by the National Monuments Section photographic unit over
many years, consists of important national monuments, national parks, other significant places, and key
sites covered by the County Inventories. These include low-level oblique aerial photography (both blackand-white
and colour). Most were taken for combined purposes of record and illustration/publicity. It is
not possible to estimate the quantity of aerial photographs in this material since the aerial images are filed
and catalogued with ground-level photographs of the same sites; it is certainly a significant collection,
although only a minority of the sites include aerial photography. A separate part of this collection includes
low-level air photography taken in colour transparencies, which again includes a variety of nationally
important sites and places, and reflects particular projects (e.g. a survey of the Shannon navigation and
other waterways, Phoenix Park, Dublin, some nationally important landscape areas).