The SS Vivo was wrecked on Balevullin beach in 1890 as it carried a cargo of coal from Newcastle to Dublin. The crew of eighteen were able to row to shore safely. The captain was found guilty of poor navigation and demoted to sail as chief mate for six months. The ship’s engine and crankshaft are exposed at low tide at the west end of the beach.
In 1912, some skeletons were found by the antiquarian Andrew Bishop in some dunes behind the beach. The skeletons proved to be Neolithic, with one showing signs of rickets, the earliest example found in Britain. Nearby was a tanged flint made around 11,000 years ago by the first people to reach Scotland from the Continent.
