Before building new structures engineering companies carry out a site investigation to find out the quality of the ground (strength and depth of soil and to see if rock and or groundwater is present). These investigations involve digging holes such as trial pits and boreholes. The results are written up in a report. The reports usually contain details of the project, borehole logs, test results, site map with the location of the site, conclusions and recommendations for the design of the structure.

A borehole is any hole drilled or dug into the ground. The material (soil and or rock) from the hole is collected and tested in a laboratory to find out the structure and type of the soil and or rock beneath the ground. A borehole record or log is a written description of the material that comes out of the ground as a result of drilling a borehole.

Geotechnical boreholes are usually shallow (0-30m). Trial pits are usually very shallow (up to 4m deep) but cover a wider area. They also cost less.

This map shows the location of the Geotechnical Site investigations carried out in Ireland that have been submitted to the GSI from engineering companies.

It is a vector dataset. Vector data portray the world using points, lines, and polygons (areas). The Site investigation data is shown as polygons. Each polygon holds information on: Report number (unique report ID), Title of the report, Town, County, URL (Link to download a PDF of the full report).