Dr. Mark Clinton:

I served as a deputy to the late, great Professor Barry Raftery, who was the hill fort expert. He excavated Rathgall in east Wicklow. He used to bring us touring around all these places. You could tell he was the non-smoker because he would jog up hills while some of us needed ambulance lifting. The Chairman is referring to a unique site with seven hilltops, focused on Baltinglass. There are seven hill forts on seven hills. Obviously, there is an interrelationship and interaction between them. They are not all on top of small mountains, if you like. There is an interrelationship. To build anything on top of any of them would be ridiculous. To put it in context, there are only approximately 100 hill forts known in Ireland, at the last count. Dr. Greene might tell me if that is right. For seven out of 100 to be in a neat little cluster is astonishing. Some of them, such as the one in Baltinglass itself, are spectacular. It is a damn fine suggestion that the hill fort cluster of Baltinglass deserves world heritage status.