AN update has been issued on the findings of a Viking boat buried beneath the car park of a Wirral pub.

Work has continued on an archaeological investigation of an alleged ancient, clinker-constructed boat buried beneath the car park of the Railway Inn in Meols.

It has long been believed that a Nordic boat is buried beneath the site at the Railway Inn in Meols after remains were allegedly unearthed by workmen digging the foundations of the pub back in 1938.

READ: Dig for lost Viking boat under Wirral pub car park this weekend

The story goes that the workmen were told to cover up their discovery and rebury their fund but one of them drew a map of the boat's whereabouts which survives to this day.

Work to undercover the findings and reveal whether the remains are still intact started in February last year by Wirral Archaeology Community Interest Company (CIC).

Yesterday (Sunday, February 25) lead project scientist Prof. Steve Harding and Archaeologist Dr. Chas Jones issued an update on the boat project after a large concrete slab was discovered at the site.

They said: “The concrete slab was an unwelcome discovery, (a large slab had been placed over where the boat is thought to be) and the subsequent decay of the boat likewise and this has provided a challenging environment. The slab and the decay has changed the strategy from what we originally hoped, but that’s the nature of scientific research – and makes a difficult but exciting detective story.

“What we appear to have picked up from species and 14C dating analysis so far is unworked wood (which seems to be largely brushwood, from species analysis, and dated to over 600 BC), and not planking wood from the boat: so from the core samples we have analysed so far – very carefully prepared - we seem to have gone under the level of the boat (remember we had to go in at an angle because of the concrete slab and utilities at the front of the pub).

“However this is providing a depth/date calibration so at this stage it is a matter of trying to complete this calibration – which is extremely valuable in its own right - and then to try and (still using the McRae sketch and GPR radargrams as a guide) find samples from underneath or around the slab from a depth/date commensurate with where an old clinker vessel is likely to be (minimum AD400) – and commensurate with planking wood and this is what we are doing now: and then we’ve got it and can home in (in principle at least).”

You can click here to follow along for more updates on the Boat Project.