When the Cork Archaeological Survey began in 1982 there were thought to be 8,000 historical sites in the county. However, the fourth and final volume of the survey has revised that figure to 15,300. The county is a veritable treasure trove and each site will be marked on the Discovery series of Ordnance Survey maps.
The survey, says Duchas archaeologist Mr Denis Power, began almost 20 years ago with a sense of urgency because a widespread "levelling" of archaeological monuments had taken place since the 1970s, largely to allow more intensive farming methods.
Ring forts, he adds, have suffered most in the headlong rush for greater productivity from the land. Their destruction also shows that modern-day farmers may not hold them in such reverence as their forebears did. Still, the completion of the Cork survey means there is now an important archaeological database as a primary source for the work of future researchers.
The Cork survey is part of a national project aimed at identifying and mapping all the sites throughout the State. In the Munster context, Waterford and Cork are now complete and work is continuing on Limerick, Kerry, Clare and Tipperary.
Within five years we may see the publication of the entire Munster record and the all-Ireland inventory may be ready to go to the publishers by 2010. The record will be the first of its kind in Ireland, and probably in Europe. It is a mammoth undertaking, bringing together experts and lay people. The Cork part of the survey, says Mr Power, has often been guided by hill walkers, land owners and individuals who enjoy an interest in amateur archaeology.
"Local knowledge has been of great benefit to us and we have often had the impression at a site that we were the first outsiders in generations to see it. Often too, we have met farmers who have said to us `I'd never have touched it if I'd only known what was there', and sometimes we feel we have been able to help the cause of preserving a site simply by having visited the farmer and talked to him about it," he added. As well as collating a vast record of sites from antiquity, the survey has broken new ground by including post-medieval sites including abandoned churches, follies, gate lodges, ruined country houses, etc., making it the most complete listing of archaeological sites ever compiled in the region.