It is ’most unlikely’ that a dig in Peel to remove silt from its harbour will find a supposedly lost Viking fleet.

The Department of Infrastructure applied (18/01293/B) last year to construct a temporary lagoon facility for drying and storing sediment dredged from Peel Marina.

During the application stage, concerns were raised that the field which is planned to house the temporary lagoon, behind the power station is the location of the final resting place of a Viking fleet.

However, an email from Manx National Heritage to planners appears to dismiss the chance of much being found.

MNH director Edmund Southworth said: ’As to the folklore that this is where a Viking fleet was situated - you can safely discard this for planning purposes.

’But the strategic position of Peel for several hundred years during the Viking period is undisputed. I would imagine you are most unlikely to find a Viking fleet, and almost all that would be left would be the nails that held the boats together. But if you did it would be of international importance!’

Manx Utilities has also been involved in the planning process and said it would be ’satisfied with the pipeline if it was re-routed out of the river channel or it was more securely anchored’.

This, it said, is to avoid the potential of it being damaged in the event of storm conditions.

Manx Wildlife Trust has objected to three specific parts of the proposals.

It has questioned the ecological impact assessment done for the proposal, MWT also called the EIA ’flawed’,

MWT criticised the lack of clarity between the linked phases 1A, to construct, operate and decommission the lagoon and 1B, the removal and transportation of the dredged material.

And MWT questioned the effectiveness of the Department of Infrastructures’s proposal in preventing contamination.