National Monuments Service - World Heritage Properties

This dataset displays locational information for the UNESCO World Heritage sites Brú na Bóinne and Sceilg Mhichíl. It also contains the buffer boundary of Brú na Bóinne. All datasets have been recorded by the National Monuments Service on behalf of UNESCO as part of their World Heritage sites record. The datasets are also viewable on the National Monuments Service, Historic Environment Viewer, accessible at https://maps.archaeology.ie/HistoricEnvironment. This dataset is based on information provided to UNESCO in April 2023.

Boundaries of Brú na Bóinne – Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne World Heritage Property and its buffer zone.

Brú na Bóinne was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1993. The listing reflects the site’s status as Europe’s largest and most important concentration of prehistoric megalithic art and as Ireland’s richest archaeological landscape. The archaeological landscape within Brú na Bóinne is dominated by three large Neolithic passage tombs, Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth, which contain the largest assemblage of megalithic art in Western Europe. Each year at dawn on the winter solstice (21 December), and for a number of days before and after, a shaft of sunlight enters the chamber at Newgrange through an opening in the roof box.

The natural heritage of Brú na Bóinne is also of importance and it encompasses several Natural Heritage Areas. The Boyne River Islands are one of the country’s few examples of alluvial wet woodland, which is a priority habitat under the EU Habitat Directive.

Boundaries of Sceilg Mhichíl – World Heritage Property.

Sceilg Mhichíl was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1996. Sceilg Mhichíl and Sceilg Bheag are towering sea crags rising from the Atlantic Ocean almost 12 kilometres west of the Ivereagh Peninsula in County Kerry. Both islands are internationally renowned as one of the most important sites for breeding seabirds in Ireland. Located at the western edge of the European landmass, Sceilg Mhichíl was the chosen destination for a small group of ascetic monks who, in their pursuit of greater union with God, withdrew from civilisation to this remote and inaccessible place. Sometime between the sixth and eight centuries, a monastery was founded on this precipitous rock giving rise to one of the most dramatic examples of the extremes of Christian monasticism.

The monastic community moved to the mainland by the thirteenth century and the island remained uninhabited until the nineteenth century when two lighthouses were constructed and linked by a remarkable road cut into the rock along the southern edge of the island.