€355,503 for Meath heritage sites

Grants totally €355,503 were announced today for eight Meath monuments and historic sites.

Heritage Minister, Malcolm Noonan announced grants for a wide range of archaeological heritage projects under the Department’s 2022 Community Monuments Fund.

“I am delighted to announce the Community Monuments Fund awards for 2022. The increased funding we are announcing today of €6 million to 128 projects will help protect our wonderful archaeological heritage and make it more accessible to the many who cherish it," said Minister Noonan. .

The Meath projects awarded funding are St John's Church and Graveyard, Nobber - €85,000; Dulane Graveyard, Kells - €30,000; Navan Town Walls - €81,026 ; St Ercs, Slane Castle - €29,980; Babes Bridge, north-east of Navan -€85,000; Monknewtown Graveyard, Slane - €13,161; St Michael's Grange, Duleek - €24,895 ; Ardmulchan Church, Navan - €6,441.

The core objective of the Community Monuments Fund is to support the conservation, maintenance, protection and promotion of local monuments and historic sites. It contains a number of different measures aimed at enabling conservation works to be carried out on archaeological monuments which are deemed to be significant and in need of urgent support, encouraging access to archaeological monuments and improving their presentation and also building resilience in archaeological monuments to enable them to withstand the effects of climate change.

The grants will fund a broad range of measures aimed at protecting and promoting the monuments, including emergency conservation repair works, masonry repair, the development of Conservation Management Plans, access infrastructure and installation of interpretation signage, and social media projects aimed at disseminating knowledge of Ireland’s archaeological heritage.