Dun Ailinne to figure in Ballyshannon appeal campaign

Professor Pam Crabtree at Dun Ailinne in 2016.

The archaeologists behind the investigations of Dun Ailinne are to bring their support to the campaign against the Kilsaran quarry appeal, writes Brian Byrne.

That was stated at last light’s meeting of the Ballyshannon Action Group, which also heard that the proposed quarry had the potential to upset a current request for consideration of Ireland’s ancient ‘royal’ sites to be given UNESCO World Heritage status.

Dun Ailinne is one of those sites, in a combined application along with Cashel, Hill of Uisneach, Rathcroghan Complex, and the Tara Complex.

The vice chair of the Group, James Delaney, told the meeting that a main qualification for such sites being given the status is that they are in largely intact pastoral landscape.

“You can already see three quarries from Dun Ailinne, and any more could inhibit the application,” he told the full attendance. “We don’t need quarries, we need things that attract tourism, and things that don’t damage the landscape.”

He said that Dun Ailinne is archaeologically very important, and that he had been there last summer with Professor Pam Crabtree of New York University. “She was with the original excavations in the 1960s, and has been back with other world-leading academics in recent years. We have been in touch with them, and they have come on board to support our case.”


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