Study to probe condition of national monuments

A NEW project aims to study how many of Ireland’s 150,000 precious national monuments have been destroyed or damaged.

Archaeological features such as ring forts, stone circles and megalithic tombs contain valuable information about the country’s heritage.

However, some monuments are damaged by livestock, adverse weather conditions or heavy machinery used by farmers and builders. An ambitious National Monitoring Programme aims to examine the condition of up to 150,000 monuments in the country beginning with a pilot project of 2,000 recorded features in counties Clare, Roscommon and Waterford. The Department of Environment and Heritage today put out tenders for the work.