The Oratory at Gallarus, believed to be an early Christian church, is one of the most famous landmarks on the Dingle Peninsula, situated 10km west of the town of An Daingean (Dingle). Constructed completely from stone its shape has often been said to resembles an upturned boat. A wide range of dates have been suggested for its construction from as early as the 6th to as late as 12th century.
This site was included on our list on the advice of a Senior Conservation Architect with the Office of Public Works (OPW). Clearly an iconic structure, concerns had been raised about the stability of the structure, and the OPW saw the value in obtaining the results from a high resolution 3D laser scan survey.
Being a relatively small structure, the internal dimensions are only 4.8m x 3.0m, it was relatively quick and easy to survey with the Faro Focus 120 scanner. The decision was made to scan it early in the morning to avoid visitors given it is a popular tourist attraction. Only 8 scans were required (a closed loop traverse with a spur to the interior) generating a pointcloud with 124,000,000 points. With the standard 6.5mm at 10m resolution setting a point spacing of better than 5mm was easily acheived given the average distnace from the object was approximately 5m. Such high resolution meant the survey would be of great value in any architectural investigation.
The images below show how efficiently the Faro Scanner can gather extremely high quality pointcloud data - the survey was completed in only two hours, and before the first visitors of the day arrived. Full examination by conservation architects has not taken place yet but issues of concern such as the slumping of the roofline is evident and quantifiable. If this survey only acts as a baseline from which to measure future deterioration it will have served a valuable function.
