The recent heat wave in the UK has revealed more than ancient henges.

Over at Bray Head, on the Irish coast, a short distance away from Dublin, a wildfire stoked by the hot weather has revealed a World War Two-era landmark that had disappeared under thick undergrowth for many years. It’s an aerial sign made by arranging rocks and boulders to spell out the word “EIRE”, which means Ireland in the Irish language.

More than eighty such signs dotted across Ireland’s coast during the Second World War as navigational messages to inform both Allied and German pilots that they were flying over a neutral country.

The sign at Bray Head exposed after the fire had scorched the earth. Photo credit: Irish Air Corps