Does everyone have some place in Ireland - a landscape, view or structure - which they feel, in happy territorial delusion, is uniquely theirs? From the consistent public reaction every time interpretative centres and new housing developments, such as the one currently proposed for Ventry Beach in Dingle, hove on to the horizon, it would appear many people do.
My place is the Loughcrew cairns, at Oldcastle in Co Meath. For three generations, the Balfe family has held the key that opens both the megalithic chambers of Cairnbane East and Cairnbane West. You get the key, travel a winding, grassspined road, then walk up the hills to the cairns. From the top of Cairnbane East, you can see for 40 miles. You can also see several perfect stone circles printed on the nearby landscape and the remains of other cairns pushing up against the grass in every direction. Once inside the chambers, light a candle and explore the arcane and beautiful carvings by this soft and volatile light. No one will hurry you along.
Meath Tourism is currently promoting the county in a number of ways. In place already is the recently-established Meath Good Food Circle; golfing, horse-riding, cycling; there's the ongoing reconstruction of Trim Castle and the opening of the heritage centre at Newgrange last June. The site at Dowth which was acquired by the State this week is also scheduled to be open to the public within two years.
Newgrange, according to Eugene Keane, projects officer for the Bru na Boinne development, is the National Monument which is "under the most pressure". Up to 1,000 people visit the site daily, year-round. Of these, no more than 650 each day can gain access to the chamber itself. This was one of the reasons for building a replica of Newgrange in the heritage centre. "It wasn't designed as a substitute," Keane says, "although the fact is that not everyone who wants to visit the original chamber will be able to, due to limited access. So it's better than not seeing the place at all, in those terms.
"It filters out those who haven't a commitment to see the real site for some reason or another. People who're running to a coach-tour schedule or who aren't that interested in making the time to go on to Newgrange."
More than 130,000 people visited the heritage centre between June and September. Newgrange itself was opened to the fee-paying public in the 1960s. The Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands has just approved the allocation of funding to the National Monument site at Loughcrew. The money will go towards widening the access road and providing a hut and guide on the site, to facilitate visitors. These services are projected to be in place by the 1998 tourist season. It has not yet been decided whether there will be a fee for the guide's service. For the near future, the Balfe family will continue to hold a key.
Eugene Keane stresses that there will be "minimal intrusion" at Loughcrew. Dot Power, of the community-based group, Oldcastle Enterprises, says: "The reality is that the visitors are starting to arrive. It's the Newgrange overflow." When I revisited Loughcrew in the bitter sunlight of last week, there were four Americans, two Australians, a Malaysian and a Singaporean all wandering around independently of each other.
Oldcastle Enterprises did a survey last August and logged 153 visitors to the site over the bank holiday weekend. The number will undoubtedly increase once there is improved access to the site and promotional literature from various tourism bodies. Newgrange started like this, 30 years ago. Hopes of minimal intrusion at the Cairnbane Cairns would appear to be wildly misplaced.