BEGINNING IN 1998
THE BMWVIKINGDUDE
HAS VISITED IRELAND
NORTH AND SOUTH,
SYSTEMATICALLY INVESTIGATING
THE FACTUAL BASIS
OF ANY AND ALL CLAIMS
REGARDING THE OLDEST PUB IN IRELAND
SOMETIME SOON,
I HOPE TO TELL YOU
ALL ABOUT IT.
OVER A BEER MAYBE . . .

Palaeoecology Centre
School of Archaeology/Palaeoecology Tel 028.90. 335147
Queen's University, Belfast Fax 028.90. 335354
N. Ireland BT7 1NN e-mail m.baillie@qub.ac.uk
6 August 2001

Raymond McElroy
Grace Neill’s Pub
33 High Street
Donaghadee

Dear Raymond,

Many thanks for allowing Aaron and myself into your roof space this morning.

I’ve looked at the small sample I took from the roof truss and it is indeed oak.

This means that I can already say with some confidence that you have
a seventeenth century oak truss in your roof.

As the truss is redundant, it must have been there for some considerable time,
most probably since the house (pub) was built (or re-built).

This does not mean that the truss is 1611, only a dendrochronological date
could move towards confirming that.

For example, it is possible that the truss was a replacement
in some rebuild later in the seventeenth century, who knows.

However, the presence of a seventeenth century truss in the roof space
is not inconsistent with the claimed historical date.

I have to say I’m quite pleased about that.

We’ll see in due course if Aaron wants to fund an actual dating exercise.

In the meantime, thanks again

Yours sincerely

Professor Mike Baillie