The many walking trails throughout the Dublin Mountains provide escape from the city below as well as stunning views in all directions. Sites and monuments in this fascinating archaeological landscape range from mountain-top tombs to early churches and military hideouts, yet this wonderful upland heritage can often be overlooked. The Dublin Mountains Community Archaeology Project is helping to raise awareness of the people who lived in and used this landscape for thousands of years and the evidence that they left behind.

Awareness of heritage can both enhance the enjoyment of a place and help to preserve monuments for future generations to enjoy. Increased appreciation of heritage and the outdoors in recent years, has meant that the mountains and forests are seeing many more visitors. Unfortunately some do not realise the vulnerability of our archaeological heritage and that by even walking over a seemingly hardy stone cairn they are causing erosion and damage.

From Neil’s work on the Hellfire Club Archaeological Project (2014–2018), the uplands of County Dublin are a place we’ve come to treasure. There is a true wealth of heritage to be discovered, and many diverse communities that live, work and enjoy the mountains on a regular basis. So Abarta Heritage were delighted to be in a position to carry out the 2021 phase of the Dublin Mountains Community Archaeology Project on behalf of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, South Dublin County Council and the Dublin Mountain Partnership, with funding from the Heritage Council.

In the course of the project, the human story of the mountains was researched and resources created to share that story. Remaining Covid-19 restrictions meant that we couldn’t organise as many in person events as we would have liked, however we did manage one site tour in October at the famous Hellfire Club and passage tomb at Montpellier Hill, where Neil discussed our excavations there in 2016. Apart from that, we had to rely on online events, though these proved very popular too. In February, 500 people signed up for our ‘Story of the Dublin Mountains’ webinar and four online training sessions on the archaeology of the mountains and monument protection, took place in February.

As part of the engagement strategy, we made short videos that give an overview of the story of the mountains and the important prehistoric archaeology (see below). We also created an online booklet that outlines the human occupation and use of the mountain landscape through the millennia, as well as identifying key sites, with information on how to treat monuments so that they can be preserved for the future. During the project we also designed six interpretation panels that will be appearing at some key archaeological monuments in the Dublin Mountains in the near future.

These various resources have been designed to help visitors to connect with their heritage and enjoy the rich archaeological heritage of this landscape. We hope that increased awareness will help to increase awareness and value in the heritage of our wonderful uplands.

We are thankful to have had the opportunity to work on the heritage of the Dublin Mountains, and we are excited to see what the next chapter is for our historic uplands. We wish to thank our clients and wish them the best of success in their future projects in the mountains. If you would like to learn more about this project, visit www.dublinmountains.ie/archaeology/archaeology. The videos can also be seen below. You can contact the project at archaeology@dublinmountains.ie.