Thirty-four per cent of the State's archaeological monuments have been destroyed since 1840, and the destruction continues at an alarming rate, according to a report to be published today.
A survey of 1,400 monuments over an area of 600 square miles, compiled for the Heritage Council, concluded that present destruction rates could see Ireland's entire archaeology levelled by the year 2101.
The report, compiled for National Heritage Week which begins today, found that the main cause of monument destruction was land improvement, much of it driven by intensive farming and development.
This has led to the levelling of monuments such as ring forts, originating from 500AD, fulachta fiaidh, Bronze Age cooking sites, churches, burial grounds and holy wells.
In the Archaeology Features at Risk project, carried out last year, 1,400 monuments were surveyed and of these 407 were listed as destroyed in the relevant county Archaeological Inventories.
The remaining 993 monuments were visited by the survey team, Mr Muiris O'Sullivan, Mr David J. O'Connor and Mr Laurence Kennedy, but they could not locate 101 of them.
The study found that 154 of the 892 remaining monuments, located in Cavan, north-west Cork, Laois/Offaly, Wexford and east Galway, had been interfered with or damaged to varying degrees.
"This represents a remarkable 17.3 per cent of the monuments listed as surviving by the County Archaeological Inventories and 11 per cent of all archaeological monuments known to have existed within the study areas," it said.
The survey found that in 76 per cent of the cases of destroyed or removed monuments, land improvement was the reason. The damage was greatest in Cos Meath and Wexford.
Development lay behind the destruction of another 11 per cent, and drainage works behind 7 per cent of the destruction.
"When destroyed monuments, seriously damaged monuments and slightly damaged monuments are combined, land improvement is still the dominant reason for the interferences," the report said.
"This is a key finding and it underlines the importance of the Rural Environment Protection Scheme in which approximately one in three of Irish farmers participate and in which measures for the protection of archaeological and historic features are built into all land improvement initiatives.
"The difficulty is that REPS are least attractive in counties such as Wexford and Meath where intensive farming is commonplace and the destruction of archaeological monuments a recorded consequence," it added.
The report recommended continuing monitoring of archaeological monuments, provision for the preservation of monuments on farmland and increased publicity and education.
It said planners involved with REPS had consistently reported that farmers tended to request information on any archaeological monuments recorded in the farm environment plans.
"What is urgently needed is a copiously illustrated know-your-archaeological-monument book aimed in particular at land-owners but which would also be of interest to others," it said.
"It can be argued that a farmer is less likely to destroy a monument if he understands its significance."
Mr Michael Starrett, chief executive officer of the Heritage Council, said the report had highlighted the need for appreciation of archaeological heritage among the public at large, as well as landowners.
Lack of resources, coupled with an increase in demand for archaeological excavation licensing and planning control, meant Duchas was currently forced to concentrate on the protection of monuments endangered by development, which meant enforcement of the National Monuments legislation was being neglected.