Resource Centre

Heritage Designation Advice

Information On the Various Heritage Designations

There is a wide range of heritage designations in use in Ireland, intended to protect the ‘most important’ aspects of our heritage. These are often referred to by specialists by their initials and this use of abbreviations and acronyms can be a source of confusion to many. A further source of confusion is reference to British designations, such as “listed building” for what is known in Ireland as a Protected Structure. This section should clear up some of this confusion.

Heritage designations can conveniently be dealt with as falling into three main fields, based on who is responsible for identifying, designating and protecting them and the sort of heritage that they cover:

However, sometimes Architectural and Archaeological heritage are grouped together as “built” heritage or, less desirably “cultural” heritage.

Who designates what?

Natural and archaeological heritage sites are both identified and designated by national bodies i.e. staff of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. These then inform the planning authority (the relevant council) about the sites they propose to designate and the planning authority adds these sites to its development plan. The Councils have no say in which sites are designated.

Additional Information