In 2015 Wessex Archaeology’s SAMPHIRE project team investigated a wreck located south of Kirkcudbright in Goat Well Bay. The remains consist of a wooden hull, complete from stem to stern with much of the lower hull still buried in the intertidal sands. The exposed parts of the wreck include the second and third futtock and the remaining stem and stern structure. The wreck was found by the Wessex Archaeology team after a tip off from Keith Armstrong-Clark, the local harbour master at Kirkcudbright.
Identification of the wreck was extremely easy as the team found a plaque commemorating its wreck! Sometimes life as an archaeologist is easy! After confirming through some investigating that the wreck was indeed the Monrieth as stated on the plaque the team did some further investigation and discovered the Monrieth was a schooner built in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway in 1876. It ran aground on 11 November 1900, with a cargo of stone bound for Kirkcudbright. Even though the wreck was already in the National Inventories list Wessex managed to recover further construction details of the vessel that can be added to the entry!