Viking boat to be lifted from Liffey

Final preparations are under way today for lifting a replica Viking ship from Dublin's River Liffey.

Final preparations are under way today for lifting a replica Viking ship from Dublin's River Liffey.

The Sea Stallion of Glendalough, the biggest reconstruction of a Viking long ship in the world, sailed in to the capital yesterday after a six-week voyage from Denmark.

At 11pm tonight the 30 metre-long boat will be lifted by crane from the quayside to Croppies Acre and over the Luas line in to Collins Barracks at the National Museum of Ireland.

Tomorrow, the longship will be put in place in Clark Square, where it will remain on show to the public as part of a special Viking-themed exhibition until June next year.

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More than 60 oarsmen rowed the longship 1,000 nautical miles from the Danish port of Roskilde, via Norway, the Orkneys and Northern Ireland .

The vessel is a reconstruction of the Skuldelev 2, built in Dublin in 1042, which is believed to have sunk in the Roskilde Fjord 30 years later.

The wood used in the original ship was traced to trees felled in Glendalough, Co Wicklow.