Uisneach Submitted By Ireland For World Heritage Site Status

It's a big step forward in the campaign to get UNESCO accreditation.

The Hill of Uisneach has been named on Ireland's 'Tentative List' for World Heritage Site status.

The historic Westmeath landmark is now in the running to receive UNESCO accreditation, as part of Royal Sites of Ireland application, which also includes the Hill of Tara, the Rock of Cashell, Rathcroghan in Roscommon, and Dún Ailinne in Kildare.

It follows an exhaustive evaluation process by heritage experts over the last 11 months.

Nominees must be on the Tentative List for at least a year before being considered by UNESCO officials in Paris.

Two other sites have been selected for Ireland's Tentative List - which hasn't been updated since 2010 - are The Passage Tomb Landscape of Sligo and the Transatlantic Cable Ensemble in Valentia, Kerry.

Ruth Illingworth is a local historian and Uisneach tour guide - she says it's a very exciting development:

Tentative List

The Tentative List is an inventory of natural and cultural heritage sites that may have potential to demonstrate Outstanding Universal Value and therefore considered suitable for nomination to the World Heritage List.

It is a pre-condition for nomination that a site must be on the Tentative List for at least one year before work can formally begin on a nomination dossier.

It is important to note that the nomination process does not necessarily result in the inscription of a site on the World Heritage List.

A site can be inscribed on the World Heritage List only if the World Heritage Committee determines it is of Outstanding Universal Value for all of humanity.

In line with UNESCO guidance, in January 2019 the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage sought applications to a new Tentative List for Ireland, to replace the current list dating to 2010. All Local Authorities were requested to make applications to the Department with respect to any sites within their jurisdiction. 

Six applications were received by the June 2021 deadline and the exhaustive and expert evaluation process over the last eleven months has concluded that three applications should be included on the new Tentative List for Ireland with details being sent to UNESCO Paris. They are: 

• The Passage Tomb Landscape of County Sligo 
• Transatlantic Cable Ensemble: Valentia-Heart’s Content, County Kerry (a serial transnational nomination with Canada) 
• Royal Sites of Ireland: Dún Ailinne County Kildare; Hill of Uisneach, County Westmeath; Rock of Cashel, County Tipperary; Rathcroghan County Roscommon and Tara County Meath; (potential for a serial transboundary nomination to include Emain Macha/Navan Fort, County Armagh). 

Expert evaluation

A World Heritage Expert Advisory Group was appointed to undertake an extensive evaluation of the applications and preliminary recommendations were issued to all applicants last November.

The Expert Group was subsequently reconvened earlier this year along with input from ICOMOS Ireland to provide further detailed technical advice to the applicants and offer specific guidance in terms of the future management of a World Heritage Property.

This process has now concluded.

The three successful Applications for Ireland’s new Tentative List are...

The Passage Tomb Landscape of County Sligo 

The passage tomb landscape of Sligo represents the most westerly and one of the most dramatic expressions of a remarkable flourishing of the construction of ritual monuments across Europe between five and six millennia ago. The interconnectivity of stone monuments and varied local topographies – typically involving upland cairns and megalithic tombs with high intervisibility across striking landscapes – is a potent expression of a long disappeared cultural milieu, which fostered an intense and enduring dialogue between architecture and landscape that remains unmatched in world terms.

Transatlantic Cable Ensemble: Valentia-Heart’s Content, County Kerry (a serial transnational nomination with Canada) 

The Transatlantic Cable Ensemble: Valentia-Heart’s Content is a transnational serial site comprising the two shore-end termini (cable stations) of the world’s first permanent trans-oceanic submarine electric telegraph. The successful submarine connection of the cable between Europe and North America in the 1860s marked the emergence of our modern global telecommunications era. 

Royal Sites of Ireland

(Dún Ailinne County Kildare; Hill of Uisneach, County Westmeath; Rock of Cashel, County Tipperary; Rathcroghan County Roscommon and Tara County Meath; (potential for a serial transboundary nomination to include Emain Macha/Navan Fort, County Armagh)

From the eighth century BC, Emain Macha/Navan Fort, Dún Ailinne, the Rock of Cashel, Rathcroghan, have been the traditional royal centres of the North, East, South and West provinces, together with Tara, the seat of the High Kings, and the Hill of Uisneach, the symbolic central point of Ireland, forming a globally unique group of archaeological ceremonial complexes. They demonstrate in physical form the development of power, ceremony and religion in a Celtic society minimally influenced by the Romans. 

"We will journey with you"

Announcing the news, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien said;

“I pay tribute to all applicants and to our own National Monuments Service and the experts who have assisted us over the last year. This has been an exhaustive process over many months of evaluation that UNESCO ambition demands. I commend all applicants for that ambition. To the three applicants, which have met the necessary criteria, know we will support you as best we can to match the local drive for full World Heritage nomination in the years ahead. It will be a challenging road, but one you have shown you are willing to travel and we will journey it with you.” 

Minister O’Brien added;

“To those applicants whose sites have been determined as not yet meeting the necessary OUV threshold, know that we will continue in our support to you, to meet your passion for your heritage.” 

In relation to the other three applications to the Tentative List, it has been concluded that: 

The Cultural Landscape of the Burren Uplands, County Clare

The Cultural Landscape of the Burren Uplands, County Clare offers significant potential to be a future World Heritage property. Considerable work had been done to date on the Tentative List application but additional work on defining its OUV is still required along with consideration of how any potential World Heritage property might be managed and operated. The Cultural Landscape of the Burren Uplands will not therefore be added to the new Tentative List at this stage but the Department is committed to supporting Clare and Galway County Councils to develop this application further and submit a revised joint application for evaluation to the Department by October 2024.

Iniscealtra (Holy Island), Co. Clare 

It has been concluded, notwithstanding its significant heritage value, that Iniscealtra (Holy Island), Co. Clare has not sufficiently demonstrated potential OUV and, accordingly, will not be added to the Tentative List. 

Glendalough Valley, County Wicklow 

Wicklow County Council has currently paused its Tentative List application in respect of Glendalough Valley, County Wicklow until work on the Glendalough and Wicklow Mountains National Park Masterplan process has concluded.

The Department says a further application on behalf of The Cultural Landscape of the Burren Uplands in County Clare and County Galway offers significant potential to be a future World Heritage property, after further work by the applicants in defining the Outstanding Universal Value of the landscape in line with UNESCO requirements.   

The Department is committed to supporting Clare and Galway County Councils to develop this application further and looks forward to receiving a revised joint application to the Tentative List.

Next steps

Once submitted to UNESCO, this new Tentative List will replace the existing 2010 Tentative List. The Department intends to revise the Tentative List on a more regular basis in future to increase opportunities for World Heritage status in Ireland. 

The Department will now, with OPW, focus on supporting the three sets of sites on the new Tentative List to develop their nomination bids for submission to the World Heritage Centre in Paris. We will also maintain support for those applications that require further work. 

The Department will shortly publish for public consultation a draft World Heritage Strategy for Ireland that will provide a framework for World Heritage management in Ireland and the inscription of additional properties to Ireland’s World Heritage List over the next decade.

Ireland has currently two properties on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Brú na Bóinne and Sceilg Mhichíl, both inscribed in the 1990s.