#GalwayBay - Carbon dating on a fragment of an ancient oak trackway on the northern shore of Galway Bay suggests a much more recent beginning for the bay as we know it.
According to The Irish Times, the radiocarbon dating analysis pinpoints the oak sample to around 1,700 BC, which means the sea level in the region was still rising as early as 3,700 years ago – nearly 4,000 years after submerging the 'drowned forests' discovered west of Spiddal earlier this year.
A full survey of the site will be undertaken by the National Museum of Ireland but it's already believed that the trackway or platform, which may have been ceremonial in nature, was built upon what was then freshwater bogland before the rising sea waters encroached.
The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.