County council housing plans threaten ringfort
Some consistency should be applied in protecting our heritage from the county council's planners. The council's brochure waffles on about the importance of our heritage sites yet the country's only restored ringfort, Lisnagun, at Darrara, Clonakilty, is about to be obliterated by the same authority.
Land owned by Clonakilty Agricultural College is about to be transferred to the county council. It intends to build over 100 affordable and social housing units on a 40-acre site where this beautifully restored ringfort stands. The ringfort has been restored, with the help of FÁS, the European Monetary Fund and the local community. It is a growing tourist attraction managed by a council project officer. This 40-acre site evidently was once an organised settlement as there is an older burial ground along with several standing stones, as well as another ringfort (unrestored).
