Tentative List

You are here:

Tentative List

A Tentative List is an inventory of those properties which a country intends to consider for nomination to the World Heritage List.

In October 2008, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government set up an Expert Advisory Group to review Ireland’s Tentative List of properties for future nomination to the World Heritage List. The review was undertaken during 2008 and 2009, when the Group considered which properties best met the criteria required for inscription on the World Heritage List. Following public consultation, assessment of proposals and consideration of submissions, the new Tentative List was approved by the Minister and submitted to UNESCO in March 2010. It replaces the previous list that was drawn up in 1992.

This new Tentative List appears below in alphabetical order but this is not necessarily the order in which nominations for inscription will be progressed. The nomination of any property, from the new Tentative List, for inscription on the World Heritage List will only take place after consultation with relevant stakeholders, interested parties and local communities. A property should be on the Tentative List of a State Party for, at least, a year before it can be nominated for inscription on the World Heritage List.

Tentative List - Ireland 2010 (Alphabetical Order)

  • The Burren
  • Céide Fields and NW Mayo Boglands
  • The Monastic City of Clonmacnoise and its Cultural Landscape
  • Dublin - The Historic City of Dublin
  • Early Medieval Monastic Sites (Clonmacnoise, Durrow, Glendalough, Inis Cealtra, Kells and Monasterboice)
  • The Royal Sites of Ireland (Cashel, Dún Ailinne, Hill of Uisneach, Rathcroghan Complex and Tara Complex)
  • Western Stone Forts

The *Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht acts on behalf of Ireland as a State Party to the World Heritage Convention.  It is responsible for the submission of nomination documentation to UNESCO for inclusion of properties on the World Heritage List and for reporting to UNESCO on the state of conservation of our World Heritage properties.

There is considerable work and time involved in the preparation of nomination documentation and a management plan for a property including a public consultation process. This stage of the process together with the public consultation will take at least two years.

Thereafter the inscription process takes about a year and a half from the submission of the complete nomination document and management plan to consideration by the World Heritage Committee. Within this period of time, the Advisory Bodies to the Committee – ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites) and IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature) - will assess the nominated property to see if it meets the requirements for inscription on the World Heritage List and make their report to the Committee.


*The Heritage portfolio has been subsumed in to the newly established Government Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in 2011