Hill of Tara unable to cope with visitor numbers
Despite recorded visitor numbers to the Hill of Tara increasing by over 26,000 in 2016, to 186,257, a report on the conservation and management of the historic hill has been sitting in the Department of Culture and Heritage for the past three years, with no action.
The Department has stated it will not be published until 2018, while facilities at Tara are coping to struggle with the crowds visiting the site.
The Friends of Tara group recently made a presentation to Meath County Council members, highlighting the dearth of parking facilities there, safety issues on the main approach road, and unseemly activities in the existing car park despite Garda efforts to curb them.
Eight members of the Friends of Tara made the presentation at the Ashbourne Municipal Area of Meath County Council, the are under which the Hill falls.
The Friends of Tara is a community group of local residents who regularly clean up the approach roads to the Hill, maintain the grass and hedges at the crossroads, and at the holy well.
It has had what it describes as mutually fruitful meetings with Meath County Council members and management over the years, with outcomes including a turning island at the R147 junction, speed limits at Tara village, landscaping and rubbish collection.
The group is among those who made submissions to various reports on the management and conservation of the Hill of Tara over the past decade – all of which have been gathering dust in government departments.
A management plan developed by Cunnane Strattan Reynolds never saw the light of day after going to the Department in the noughties, while the 2014 study involving stakeholders and local public representatives has never been moved on.
At present, the public car park on the Hill of Tara can accommodate about 30 cars, with another 10 squeezing in along the roadsides. Local business-owner Michael Maguire allows cars to park in his field in a temporary situation, and even this struggles to cope with demand.
There can be 1,000 tour buses a year visiting – an average of three a day and up to six at the height of the season, while cyclists, sports clubs, walkers, and local residents make up more of the visitor numbers to the hill and cafe. There are often queues and waiting lists for a table in the Maguire's Hill of Heroes cafe.
While the official figures record under 200,000 visitirs a year, there could be an estimated extra 100,000 who use the car park and restaurant, but are not necessarily recorded on the OPW site.
The challenge to all involved is finding a balance between the use of the site as a recreational parkland and the protection of the heritage and archaeology of the seat of the ancient high kings of Ireland.
Among the proposals put forward by the Friends of Tara is to use an available field for car parking, and restict the main car park to coach parking. They say this would also help restrain the unseemly behaviour at the entrance to the site. Removing trees on one side of the approach road was alo suggested.
A spokesperson for the Office of Public Works says that they a conservation and management plan with Meath County Council, the Heritage Council and the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht is being advanced, which will produce a schedule of actions to deal with the traffic and parking problems at Tara.
Meath County Council is dealing with some safety issues on approach routes at present, with some trees earmarked for removal.
Cllr calls for action
Cllr Damien O'Reilly has called for proper tourist and user facilities at the Hill of Tara, especially as Meath is being marketed as Ireland's heritage county.
He says that finding a happy medium between heritage and recreation is necessary on the historic hill.
Cllr O'Reilly asked Meath County Council for an update and timeframe on the planned €250,000 capital spend on new tourist and parking facilities at the Hill of Tara.
Hw was told that Meath County Council met with representatives of the National Monuments Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and OPW on 6th July 2017 to discuss the Hill of Tara Conservation/Management Plan.
The Draft Plan was submitted to the Department in September 2014. It was agreed that while it was still of relevance,it would require some edits and updating, and that responsibility should be given to the original authors.
The Council stated that car parking constraints at the Hill of Tara site were in urgent need of resolution and it was agreed that this should be prioritised notwithstanding the finalisation of a Conservation/Management Plan.
Meath County Council was asked to submit its comments on 21st July 2017. It stated that the Department has agreed to incorporate reviews by NMS, OPW and Meath County Council, and forward to the Discovery Programme/Heritage Council as the basis on which the draft plan should be edited and updated.
The Department has stated that final Conservation/Management Plan be ready for publication in 2018. It is intended that the Conservation Plan for Tara complex will act as an overarching framework for managing and interpretation of the site.
The Great Wall of Tara!
Work on the reconstruction of the wall around the graveyard on the Hill of Tara will be complete as soon as possible, the Office of Public Work says.
The rebuilding work has being ongoing since storm damage of about four years ago, according to locals, but a great deal of progress has been made this year, with the OPW's apprentice stonemasons working on the project.
It needs a special lime and mortar combination which cannot be used in especially cold weather, limiting the amount of time that can be dedicated to the construction, and the workers also have to have due regard to the fact that it is a graveyard wall and the extra sensitivities involved in that.