Built Heritage
The Irish countryside is rich in ancient settlements and ritual monuments. These are the result of generations of farming communities who have made their living from the land. Most townlands contain at least one ancient monument, many contain several. Some are constructed of earth or stone and may appear as banks of earth or humps and hollows on the ground surface, others are buried and have to be reveals by aerial photography or by excavation.
A series of maps called the Record of Monuments and Places has been produced for each county in Ireland. These maps include both upstanding monuments and levelled sites, cropmark sites and other areas of archaeological potential. Copies can be examined in County Planning Offices, County Libraries , County Museums, Teagasc Offices and Department of Agriculture AES Offices.
All archaeological monuments are protected under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 1994.
Ancient Monuments in Grassland
Grassland provides the best conditions for the preservation of monuments. However, damage is likely to occur when land is overstocked and when troughs are placed on or close to the monument. Poaching of the surface caused by by stock can seriously erode the site. Grazing is the best way to prevent scrub encroachment. The monument and a buffer zone of 20m around it should not be interfered with through activities such as quarrying, drain excavation or associated farm works which would cause disturbance of the ground.
Ancient Monuments in Arable Land
The trend towards larger fields in arable farming has resulted in the removal of portions of ancient monuments which had survived in the earlier field boundaries. Levelled monuments can appear as cropmarks. Dug features such as ditches and puts retain moisture in dry conditions showing a different colour than the surrounding crop. Traces of buried settlements can also be identified as spreads of worked flints or concentrations of potsherds and dark patches in tilled fields. Subsoilers or mole ploughs in modern use on the farm can cause new damage to those monuments which lay undisturbed for centuries below previous plough depths.
Useful links:
Publications of Interest
Farming and Archaeology - The Irish Historic Landscape |
Earthen Banks and Broken Walls - Our Legacy of Ancient Monuments |
Contacts:
National Monuments Service
Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government,
Dún Scéine,
Harcourt Lane,
Dublin 2.
Phone: 00 353 1 8883139
Email: nationalmonuments@environ.ie
National Museum of Ireland
Collins Barracks,
Benburb Street,
Dublin 7,
Ireland.
Tel: +353 1 6777444
Tel LoCall: 1890 687 386
Tel LoCall: 1890 MUSEUM
Fax: +353 1 6777450
Email: info@museum.ie
