Dear Madam, - The bulldozing of the Enniskillen crannog by the Roads Service was just the latest of series of disasters involving the DOE’s Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

The NIEA have a statutory duty to protect listed historic monuments. The trouble is that frequently they don’t.

I discovered two stone circles, a wedge tomb, and stone alignments at Mountdrum in Fermanagh, January 1991. NIEA put the whole site on their Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) as “scheduled”, meaning that it was especially protected under the law. Fermanagh District Council purchased it for the public, and were then custodians of the monuments along with the NIEA. Tourist road signs were put up all around.

Then disaster. FDC and NIEA allowed gorse to smother the site. The inevitable wildfires shattered the stones of the monuments that had survived for about 4,000 years. Now the site is a wasteland, despite my public complaints throughout.

There have been other disasters involving NIEA concerning more of my prehistoric discoveries in Fermanagh. At Kinarla, scheduled, and at Trory junction, generally protected on the SMR. I enquired in each case. The responses from NIEA were bizarre. There were no explanations, no apologies, no regrets. Why not?

Now here is a statement by the Roads Service, February 2009. “Notice of Intention to Proceed. The proposed Cherrymount Link Road will directly impact on two recorded archaeological sites, a crannog and a dug-out canoe. All archaeological activities regarding the proposed Cherrymount Link Road will be subject to discussion with, and approval from, the relevant Planning Authorities and NIEA.” Compare this with the statement on the BBC News, 30 July 2012. “The Roads Service said it was not aware of the existence of the crannog before construction work began.” Both statements can be seen on the internet.

The NIEA’s Principal Inspector of Historic Monuments oddly waxed lyrical for the media on the half-wrecked crannog, also on the internet, 16 April 2013. He did not mention the contradictions set out above. Could he respond to these points?

Yours faithfully, Fred Carroll