Donal Hickey: Graffiti on an 800-year-old friary in Cork
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After a long, wet winter and spring, we're all hoping for reasonably good weather to enjoy the outdoors during the Easter holiday period. Nature reserves, cycleways, forest walks, and various parks are sure to be busy.
Some will seek out the thousands of national monuments dotting the countryside. The message from environmentalists and heritage lovers is: please respect the monuments and the owners of the property upon which they sit.
The Tuatha heritage group, mainly comprising archaeologists, encourages responsible and sustainable tourism — basically people being aware of their impact on climate change and the local environment.
Tuatha founder and director, Neil Jackman, says great damage has been caused to a number of monuments by people unwittingly churning them up by driving scramblers or quad bikes over them. Even mountain bikes can have an impact.
“Their deeply-treaded tyres are designed to grip into the ground, and when a particular route becomes popular this can lead to the erosion, or damage, of earthen features like the banks of a ringfort, or enclosure," he points out.
It is easy to damage a monument without intending to do so. There are cases, particularly on stone walls, or hilltop cairns such as Loughcrew, County Meath, and Knocknarea and Carrowkeel, both in County Sligo, where people climb on top of the stone mounds.
This causes stones to become dislodged, or loosens the drystone structures. And it can lead to copycat behaviour, with one person following another and climbing to the top.
“Over time, this causes erosion by footfall and leads to the monument becoming damaged. It may even lead to the monument collapsing — dangerous for both the monument and the unlucky person caught in the rockfall," Jackman says.
Graffiti is another ongoing problem. In recent weeks, gardaí have been investigating an incident at the 800-year-old Carmelite friary in Castlelyons, County Cork, where large drawings in black spray paint have been scrawled on the walls.
Many sites have been preserved and protected thanks to private landowners and people need to be aware of access rights, which can change from time to time. Often, landowners welcome visitors.
On the other hand, ‘no trespassing’ signs should be respected. There could be livestock, including a dangerous bull, in a field. And, of course, dogs should not be taken onto private land. There have been cases of landowners closing off access to monuments because of some visitors’ misbehaviour.
Indeed, treating a landowner respectfully can lead to even more enriching experiences on a site. Who, after all, may know more about a place than the owner? And they are generally only too happy to share that knowledge.