Galway County Council: Save Our Stone Walls

Galway County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) are planning to replace all the historic stone walls from Ballinderreen to Kinvara with cheap, ugly post and wire fencing, as part of the road upgrade. This is the gateway to the Burren, a UNESCO listed World Heritage site and cultural landscape. The Wild Atlantic Way has been incredibly successful in bringing visitors to our region. Their first introduction is along the N67, the road in question. The walls were built by hand by the ancestors of the local people, using local stone from the fields. If these walls are torn down, they are gone forever. It could be a great opportunity to display the best of our stone masons craft, and reflect the traditional built heritage of the region. The local community, especially the farmers, are very much in favour of retaining the culture of using dry-stone walls for boundries. Add your voice to their efforts to save our landscape by signing the petition.

Why this matters! We need your help to stop the destruction of our beautiful, old dry stone walls. A plan to bulldoze them and instead erect cheap, ugly post and wire fencing has come to our attention. This short sighted move has been agreed between Galway County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland. It is to be executed very soon in our community along the N67, from Ballinderreen to Kinvara, and subsequently across the entire country as part of a roads ‘upgrade’. If our walls are torn down, our beautiful landscape will be changed beyond recognition forever. Our area is the gateway of the Burren, a UNESCO listed World Heritage site! We treasure our walls, which were built by our ancestors. The culture of Irish stone wall field boundaries in ancient, and we cannot let it be destroyed for the sake of the convenience of roads engineers. Heritage is precious: if they demolish our walls, they are gone forever. Please add your voice to protect our landscape by signing this petition.