Introduction

Rathcroghan, in County Roscommon, is one of the most remarkable and important archaeological complexes in Ireland, incorporating sixty National Monuments. Like Tara, it is renowned in archaeology, history and legend as a late prehistoric royal centre, and it incorporates the burial place of the Kings of Connaught. The complex of monuments range in date from Neolithic to Medieval and include megalithic tombs, tumuli, ritual enclosures, ring barrows, twenty ring forts, caves, and ancient field systems.

Located in the western part of the Republic of Ireland, Rathcroghan lies five kilometres north-west of the village of Tulsk and twenty kilometres to the north-west of Roscommon Town. (see map)

The Rathcroghan Conservation Study Area (pdf) incorporates these monuments in their landscape setting and covers an area of just over seven square kilometres (716 hectares). The area for the most part is open countryside and highly evocative.

In light of the growing recognition of this landscape’s importance to the understanding of Ireland's prehistory and history, a conservation plan is required to form the basis of an integrated and agreed strategy for its future management. The plan will also enable the development of informed site-specific research strategies aimed at developing more complex understandings about several significant phases of Ireland's past.

Oxford Archaeology will be undertaking this project between July and December 2006. As text for the conservation plan is drafted it will be made available via this web for consultation. A consultation seminar is being planned for later in the year. Watch this space for more details.