The Archaeological and Architectural Heritage of the County.

The Council recognises that Dun Laoghaire Rathdown has an outstanding built heritage, both archaeological and architectural, with the highest concentration of protected structures outside of the Dublin City area.

This diverse range of structures includes Dolmens, early Christian churches, tower houses, sites of industrial archaeology, maritime structures including the harbours and Martello towers, Georgian houses, Victorian terraces and villas and early 20^th C. International style houses. These structures should be valued as a unique and special finite resource for the County.

The statistics below relate to the Draft Development Plan which is currently on public display.

The Archaeological Heritage

The Draft Development Plan now includes all recorded monuments and places within the County in the Duchas 1998 Record of Monuments and Places.

393 Archaeological items are included in Schedule 1 of the Written Statement and on the maps of the Draft Development Plan maps. 207 of these items are also defined as Protected Structures (as they are structures and of special interest). These items are therefore protected under both the National Monuments Act and the Planning Act.

The Architectural Heritage

Protected Structures are defined as structures, or parts of structures that are of special architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical interest.

The ‘structure’ includes the interior of the structure, the land lying within the curtilage of the structure, any other structures lying within that curtilage (whether listed in the written statement or high lighted on the maps or not) and their interiors and all fixtures and features which form part of the interior or exterior of any structure or structures referred to above.

1814 (includes 185 proposed additions and excludes those items of archaeological interest discussed above.) Protected Structures are included in Schedule 2 of the Written Statement and shown on the Draft Development Plan maps.

45 Areas have been proposed as Architectural Conservation Areas. These areas will only adopt this status when the Draft Plan is adopted. An Architectural Conservation Area is defined as a place, area, group of structures or townscape that is of special architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical interest or value or that contributes to the appreciation of protected structures.

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