Draft plan for 'world-class' Giant's Causeway site published

The draft management plan for the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site has been published for public consultation today.

Environment Minister Angela Smith said that the plan was designed to ensure that the site remained a "world-class visitor attraction", managed to sustain the natural environment and the local economy.

The Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast site is Northern Ireland’s premier tourist attraction with over 400,000 visitors per annum. The World Heritage Site is largely owned and managed jointly by the National Trust (the stones, hotel, headlands and cliff top paths) and by Moyle District Council (the carpark and site of the visitor centre).

UNESCO, the organisation responsible for the designation of World Heritage Sites, required the management plan for the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast site be submitted to the agency's World Heritage Centre by February 2005.

A tourism masterplan for the wider Causeway Coast and Glens area, including on-site safety proposals, and an international competition for a replacement visitor centre also form core elements to the consultation.

Ms Smith said: “The Giant’s Causeway is a site dear to many people in Northern Ireland and there will be great interest in the proposals to ensure the sound management of this iconic landscape.

“The Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast site is not only of global importance as a geological feature, it is also Northern Ireland’s premier tourist attraction. With visitor numbers likely to grow in the years to come, it is essential that we have a robust management plan in place to ensure that the site is not physically damaged and the experience of visitors is not compromised by insensitive site management."

The Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast site, an area of 71 hectares, was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. The site is of outstanding universal value and meets criteria set out in the World Heritage Convention.

The plan has been jointly produced by Environment and Heritage Service and the main owners of the site, the National Trust and Moyle District Council. The consultation period closes at the end of November 2004.

(gmcg)