Considering the enormous changes and destruction across the face of Ireland in little more than a half-century, it’s something of a miracle that many stone-walled structures have survived for millennia.
Some date back more than 5,000 years, while dry stone walls that act as field boundaries are regularly maintained by farmers in Clare, Galway and other counties, especially in the west.
Unesco recently included dry stone wall construction here in its list of protected, cultural heritage practices around the world. Good news as a new year begins, and a promise of safeguarding another part of our heritage following a long campaign.
Fifteen years ago, Mary Laheen, an architect with a special interest in cultural landscape and the Aran Islands, wrote of a “degree of urgency” about putting a protection plan in place, whether or not World Heritage listing was obtained.
People born in mid-20th century have seen more changes in the Irish landscape than several previous generations, to the extent that parts of the countryside are scarcely recognisable from photographs taken, say, in the 1950s/’60s.
Signs on, old John Hinde postcard pictures in vivid colour, which did so much to promote an idyllic image of a green, unspoilt Ireland, evoke an outpouring of nostalgia when seen nowadays.
A critical problem is the precarious balance between traditional farming use and the development of tourism, which in itself contributes to the abandonment of the land.
In her book, , Ms Laheen says as agricultural work on the land decreases, scrub increases on small access roads and in some fields, while livestock on farms becomes less diverse.
“The invasion of scrub will have a negative effect on birdlife, and without cattle wintering on the limestone plateau the rare and interesting flora that exist there will diminish, if not disappear,” she warns.
Places already Unesco-listed in other parts of the world are, in some ways, similar to Aran. Take the rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras — a symbol of manual farming work by a community in an isolated location.
Then there’s the Pico Island vineyard culture, in the Azores —a network of high, dry stone walls enclosing tiny, soil-less fields where vines are grown. World Heritage listing has raised awareness in all cases of these special places and helps allay obvious threats like infrastructural development.
“The task is not simply to conserve the landscape, but to find new ways of living in and caring for the land,” Ms Laheen writes.
This can be achieved by learning from traditional and sustainable practices of the past, and also embracing knowledge gleaned from the wider world experiencing similar dilemmas, she explains.