Clodagh Finn: Bid to build near Neolithic tombs raises questions about our planning system
Cairns Hill in Co Sligo is a candidate for Unesco World Heritage status, akin to Skellig Michael in Co Kerry. Picture: Sligo Neolithic Landscapes
How ironic to hear of the reopening of one Irish Unesco World Heritage site, on the very same day that councillors in Sligo voted to build near another site considered worthy of inclusion on the list of places of outstanding universal value.
Just as the magnificent Skellig Michael, with its remarkable beehive monastic enclosure, reopened to visitors on Monday, 14 Sligo county councillors voted to overturn their own county development plan, to allow the building of a 74-unit housing estate on the slopes of Cairns Hill in Co Sligo.
The controversial vote is all the more newsworthy given there is a housing crisis, and this development involves a TV celebrity. It was designed by judge Hugh Wallace’s architectural firm, Douglas Wallace Architects, for local developers Novot Holdings.
Wallace was quoted as saying that the site — near two unexcavated Neolithic tombs — was “a very appropriate place to construct new housing, to serve the chronic undersupply in the town”.
He also said there were two existing housing developments between his design and the archaeologically-significant tombs. There are no such developments but, even if there were, would it be right to build even more houses near an area that is at the centre of a bid to designate Sligo’s landscape of some 100 Neolithic passage tombs a world heritage site?
It should be said that two councillors thought not. Fianna Fáil councillor Tom MacSharry said the local community had real concerns about the potential for flooding and traffic problems, while his party colleague Rosaleen O’Grady voted against the proposal saying she was in favour of housing but did not want heritage to be put at risk.
She pointed out that the area earmarked for development had been described as “the jewel in the crown” of an exceptional 5,000-year-old landscape that includes the more famous Carrowmore tomb complex.
The staggering puzzle at the centre of all of this is that the very council which voted to build houses in this fragile and special place was, a few short months ago, championing a proposal to have it considered for the Unesco World Heritage list. If approved — and we will know later this month — the unique archaeological heritage of Sligo would be put on a World Heritage Site tentative list in time for Unesco’s 10-year review of world heritage sites.
It makes the timing of the vote seem rather cynical. Is it an effort by the Council to undo the protections inscribed in its own development plan on the eve of an announcement that would make development on this site much more difficult?
Or, as many argue, is it an attempt to provide much-needed housing at a time of a real and urgent crisis?
It is an interesting question because the tension between development and preservation is one that has played out in this country over several decades, often with the former trumping the latter.
Although, let us recall that 14 years ago, Sligo councillors voted to protect Cairns Hill when they blocked a plan to build a road there.
A few decades before that, in 1989, a number of Sligo residents — at great personal financial risk — went all the way to the Supreme Court to stop a refuse dump being placed beside the Carrowmore megalithic site. At the time, the court found that the council had contravened its own development plan, and said such plans were only window-dressing if they ignored the advice of concerned groups.
Mr Justice McCarthy turned to WB Yeats to illustrate that point: “The wind has bundled up the clouds high over Knocknarea and thrown the thunder on the stones for all that Maeve can say.”
It seems timely to repeat that quote as we seem to be back in the same place again; in that thorny spot where a council can so easily unpick its own contract to regulate private development in the way it said it would in its plan.
The council seems to have ignored the advice of concerned groups too. Local residents fear the development will lead to increased flooding and they highlight the lack of social infrastructure — access to public transport, commercial facilities, and schools — to support the new housing units.
Archaeologist Stefan Bergh has warned that rezoning the area will create irreparable damage to the integrity of the archaeological landscape of Cairns Hill and Cúil Irra peninsula, while others have called for more time so that they can take the upcoming new county development plan and the World Heritage Site application into account.
But the one thing people waiting for houses don’t have is time. People living in emergency accommodation or packed into spare rooms or couch-surfing, or worse, are unlikely to be thinking too much about Unesco or its famous list.
They will, however, want to live in a place where there is access to schools, shops, public transport, and the other long list of amenities that have been glossed over so often in the past, leading to bad planning decisions and several examples of fragmented and unsustainable development.
Also, this development is a commercial development and is unlikely to help first-time buyers or those locked out of the property market.
While Monday’s decision to allow development on the slopes of Cairns Hill is a Sligo issue, it is also an issue of national importance, as we have seen how easy it was for a council to vote to materially contravene its own county development plan and allow building on the council’s strategic land reserve.
The constant struggle between preserving the remains of a rich past and living in a challenging present, is one that also has national resonance.
Remember the debate about whether or not to allow a Star Wars crew film on Skellig Michael. It was a worthwhile debate, because it led to the imposition of strict environmental and ecological protections while filming went ahead.
You could argue, however, that the rocky outcrop’s new-found fame is a double-edged boon as it increases the number of tourists flocking to an already sensitive environment. But — and it’s a significant ‘but’ — the fact that Skellig Michael is inscribed on the World Heritage list means that there are rules to protect this singular archaeological gem.
1/4 - Cairns Hill is a jewel in the crown of the Sligo landscape and a key location in the proposed future WHS. Given the importance of Cairns Hill for the people of Sligo and the country, we at the SNL group believe we should not contravene our County Development Plan. pic.twitter.com/x2hoQzOBda
— Sligo Neolithic Landscapes (@Sligoneolithic) July 3, 2022
In the same way, inscribing Sligo’s Neolithic landscape will ensure that it too has the same protections while, at the same time, allowing tourism and the profits it brings.
But what of houses? As prehistoric researcher Pádraig Meehan says, the key to all development is based on two things — balance and trust.
He was one of those who surveyed Sligo’s passage tombs for Ireland’s World Heritage Site list, but he says, nobody wants to insulate or ‘museum-ify’ an area. Sligo — and everywhere else for that matter — is a living landscape and it’s possible to accommodate all interests.
It’s as if, he says, you lay a lace curtain over a landscape with holes in it to allow protection for places of archaeological interest; in this case, Cairns Hill, the Ox mountains, Carrowmore, Carrowkeel, Ballygawley, Keash, and Knocknarea.
That’s a point worth considering before bringing down the curtain on any planning decision.
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