archaeological & built heritage assessment - The Heritage Council

• The museum and archive collections directly linked to the waterway and its associated townlands
(e.g. King House (Boyle), Strokestown Park House, Boyle Cistercian Abbey, Rockingham Forest
Park, Drumshanbo Visitors Centre, Arigna Mining Experience, Cavan and Leitrim Railway
(Dromod)) create a medium to inform about the past and also to serve as an educational
resource.
• The waterway is significant within the realms of tourism, education and presentation. It
contributes to our understanding of the past and the present and acts as a focal point for
educational, leisure and pleasure activities.
• The social values of local communities are enhanced by the presence of the waterway and its
inextricable links to the past, thus creating a symbolic focus for identity.
• The waterway plays an important role within the adjacent townscape settings by creating a sense
of natural beauty, openness and a slow-moving pace of life.
• The waterway has the potential to reveal much more about Irish life throughout history. While
much of the evidence has been uncovered, more undoubtedly remains to be explored. In
particular, the towns that developed along the waterway retain a significant amount of dwellings,
urban plan and original buildings that can be considered as cultural amenities as well as a source
for academic study in a wide range of areas including social history, industrial archaeology,
architecture and urban design.
• The waterway encompasses a large proportion of the River Shannon, which has a catchment area
of over 15,000 square kilometers, representing a fifth of the whole area of Ireland. It has many
myths and legends attached to it and is a major source of national identity in Ireland.
• The waterway includes a series of sites which have been deemed protected structures in terms
of their national and regional importance by local government authorities. In total a significantly
high number (111) have been accorded this status, and this together with the sheer volume of
archaeological (368) and industrial (76, twelve of which are also RMPs) sites located along a
limited parameter on the banks of the waterway serves as testimony to the utilization extent of
the river since prehistoric times.
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