Monuments Watch begins at Lismullen/Rath Lugh

This weekend TaraWatch began its Monuments Watch program, designed to provide 24 hour surveilance of thw two recognised national monuments under threat from the M3 motorway

TaraWatch is stting up a permanent presence close to the national monuments of Rath Lugh and Lismullen, designed to protect them from illegal construction works. Volunteers are needed.

As part of Monuments Watch, some of us did a field walk on Sunday 27 May along the pathway of the motorway from Roestown, just north of Dunshaughlin, to Collierstown, beside the Tara post office, in the Tara/Skryne Valley. Roestown was the site of an underground souterrain complex, which was excavated and dismantled by the NRA just before Saint Patrick's Day http://www.indymedia.ie/article/81529 Collierstown was an important burial site, as many of the sites appear to be

We encountered a number of archaeological sites, which have been fully excavated. About 50% of the route of the motorway has had the topsoil cleared. On one part, close to Collierstown, we saw what appears to be a 19th drainage ditch cutting across the path of the M3. It is about 24 inches wide and deep, made of indigenous rocks. There are two images below showing the cracks in the surface revealing the drain. This appears to be what the media are reporting today to be 'significant underground remains'.

All 38 sites in between Navan and Dunshaughlin have been fully excavated, except for the new discovery at Lismullen and the part of Rath Lugh that was cleared in early January. These are the two sites TaraWatch is focusing on, and which may form the basis of a new legal challenge.

Please help us prevent this site going the way of Roestown, and other fully intact sites, due to lack of monitoring and resistance.

For more images see blog at http://www.myspace.com/hilloftara

To join the Monuments Watch call Laura at 087-972-8603

Further up ... heading north

Significant underground remains, or insignificant underground drain?

Heading north where topsoil removed

NRA map of sites along Navan to Dunshaughlin section