Doggerland: Britain’s Sunken Atlantis

Doggerland: Britain’s Sunken Atlantis

I’ve been enjoying The Rig, currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, which depicts mysterious events unfolding for a crew on an oil rig in the North Sea, built atop Dogger Bank. The show feels like it could have started as a Doctor Who script before being spun off into its own series, with hints of corporate and governmental foreknowledge about what lies beneath Dogger Bank. It includes several nods to James Cameron’s 1980s sci-fi underwater film The Abyss. Doggerland, often dubbed Britain’s Atlantis, refers to a sunken landmass that slipped beneath the waves as sea levels rose after the Ice Age.

Several years ago, I began writing a piece on sunken islands around the UK, aiming to explore their associated stories and mythologies. The opening chapters focused on Doggerland, with notes gathered in a Google Doc created on October 8, 2013—over 12 years ago. It’s time to bring closure to this piece, which has lingered unfinished in my digital archives.

The Lost World of Doggerland

Doggerland was a vast landmass in the southern North Sea that connected Britain to continental Europe during and after the last Ice Age, roughly from 20,000 to 6,500 BCE. This rich, habitable landscape of hills, rivers, marshes, woodlands, and wetlands was likely home to Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and diverse wildlife, including mammoths, aurochs, deer, and lions. Rising sea levels, driven by glacial melt, gradually submerged it, with final inundation occurring around 6,500–6,200 BCE, possibly accelerated by a tsunami triggered by the Storegga Slide, a massive underwater landslide off Norway. This event sent an estimated 3,500 cubic kilometres of rock and debris into the water, generating a devastating wave. Dogger Bank, an upland area, remained an island until at least 5,000 BCE.

 

(source DW)

A History Beneath the Waves

Doggerland’s existence was first hypothesised in the late 19th century by H.G. Wells in his 1897 story A Story of the Stone Age, which described a land where one could walk from Europe to Britain. Scientific interest grew in 1913, as tensions brewed across Europe, when paleobiologist Clement Reid studied plant remains from Dogger Bank, followed by anatomist Sir Arthur Keith’s 1915 discussion of its archaeological potential.

In 1931, the discovery of the Colinda harpoon—a 21-centimetre-long bone tool with ornate decorations, dated to 11,740 BCE—was recovered in deep trawl nets. 

 

In 1988, a Mesolithic stone disc axe was dredged from the same area. The term “Doggerland” was coined in 1998 by University of Exeter archaeologist Bryony Coles, derived from Dogger Bank, a submerged sandbank 60 miles off England’s coast. The bank was named after 17th-century Dutch fishing boats called “doggers,” used to catch cod, and has no connection to dogs. Coles chose the name to emphasise the region’s significance as a distinct landscape, not merely a land bridge. Doggerland has since transitioned from speculative myth to a tangible reality of the near past

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Modern Discoveries and Technologies

In recent years, advancing technologies have clarified Doggerland’s extent and environment. The University of Birmingham’s North Sea Palaeolandscapes Project, led by Vince Gaffney, used seismic survey data from oil exploration to map over 23,000 km² of the early Holocene landscape, revealing rivers, lakes, and hills. Projects like the University of Bradford’s ongoing Europe’s Lost Frontiers have employed seabed mapping, sediment coring, and DNA analysis to study environmental changes and human presence. Sediment cores from the Norfolk Boreas wind farm site, analysed by Wessex Archaeology, have provided detailed geological and ecological data. These efforts, combining archaeo-geophysical techniques, computer modelling, and molecular biology, confirm Doggerland’s existence and timeline. 

At the Celtic and Prehistoric Museum in Ireland, a woolly mammoth skull dredged from Dogger Bank gazes blankly, holding an untold history. Over the decades, fishing trawlers have recovered bones of mammoths, woolly rhinos, aurochs, lions, red and roe deer, and wild pigs, indicating a rich ecosystem. More than 2,000 objects have been documented, including stone tools (axes, hammers, arrowheads, adzes), the Colinda harpoon, and Mesolithic fishing implements. Remarkably preserved textile fragments, wooden paddles, and dwelling remnants have been found off Denmark’s coast.

Traces of Human Life

Two specific human remains from different epochs have been discovered. A Mesolithic hunter-gatherer’s jawbone and teeth, dated to around 8,300 BCE, and a Neanderthal skull fragment, over 40,000 years old, provide clues to ancient life. DNA and isotope analyses reveal diets based on land and freshwater animals, while postmortem cut marks suggest ritual practices. These findings hint at structured lifestyles and possibly ceremonial acts. Footprints of Mesolithic hunters, including 39 preserved prints, have been found on the seafloor, offering a tangible connection to their presence.

Megalithic Mysteries

Could structures or monuments lie across the submerged region? Across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, and northern Europe, numerous stone circles demonstrate an understanding of engineering and astronomy, with stones aligned to celestial events. Doggerland, situated between these regions, may conceal similar sites beneath the seafloor. In Doggerland: Prehistoric Britain: Dawn of a Lost Civilization, Robert John Langdon suggests connections between Stonehenge, Doggerland, and Atlantis, proposing that Stonehenge’s Altar Stone and Slaughter Stone point toward Doggerland. However, this directional alignment seems broad and speculative. No confirmed settlement sites have been found underwater due to poor visibility, high costs, and vast search areas. 

With seismic surveys and deep mapping techniques, the former surface of Doggerland has been revealed. The next step is to identify likely habitation sites along the former river channels and investigate for potential discoveries, including megalithic structures. 

Earth Mysteries, one of the focuses of ASSAP’s investigations, explore ancient sites, ley lines, and geological phenomena often associated with paranormal and unexplained events, suggesting hidden energies or spiritual forces may influence these locations. There is a warmly invite of speculation about who or what created these sites, whose construction methods continue to defy explanation. Those intrigued by missing links, potential lost civilisations, and absent chapters in human history—preserved only in whispers and myths—find a profound connection to this field. This curiosity overlaps with the science of archaeology, though researchers, enthusiasts, and archaeologists often regard each other with mutual skepticism. Doggerland, once a realm of myth and speculation, has become a tangible reality through archaeological discoveries, fueling wonder about lost civilisations. Its submerged history and enigmatic artifacts, lying tantalizingly close yet just beyond reach off the coast, deepen this sense of mystery.

Sources: 

https://archaeology.org/issues/march-april-2022/letters-from/doggerland-mesolithic-submerged-landscape/

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/researchframeworks/mesolithic/wiki/Doggerland

https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Doggerland

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/researchframeworks/mesolithic/wiki/Doggerland
https://animals-in-culture.fandom.com/wiki/Doggerland

https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/news/secrets-doggerland
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/atlantis-britain-prehistoric-territory-doggerland-prepares-unveil-secrets-020510

https://www.clanhendersonsociety.com/scotland-history-stories 

https://prehistoric-britain.co.uk/stonehenge-doggerland-atlantis-connection

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/05/doggerland-europes-lost-land/117925

https://www.dw.com/en/doggerland-how-did-the-atlantis-of-the-north-sea-sink/a-55960379

https://europe.factsanddetails.com/article/entry-857.html

https://ruralhistoria.com/2023/07/15/doggerland/

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/doggerland

https://historyguild.org/doggerland-the-lost-world-beneath-the-north-sea/

https://ruralhistoria.com/2023/07/15/doggerland