The Department for Communities (DfC) Historic Environment Division (HED) recently published their report from the four-year project to carry out a “systematic survey of 20th century Army, Navy and Air Force defence facilities in Northern Ireland”. The report was commissioned by the HED in 2020 and the contract was awarded to Ulida Heritage Services and led by Dr. Jim O’Neill. You can read the press release here.
The 202-24 survey was built upon the community work carried out by the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) in the Defence of Britain (DoB) project. Through my work on this website and that of other enthusiastic amateurs, such as Andy at ww2ni and through Facebook, it was clear that the information recorded by the HED before this project was incomplete and didn’t accurately reflect the current state of military archaeology in NI. With rights of access to private land under the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects Order (1995) the project had unrestricted access to sites across the country. The project summary report, an interesting read in itself, is available for download from the press release article linked above.
It was also fantastic to see a shoutout to Frontline Ulster in the bibliography section of the report. Along with two other local military history websites, new sites had been identified and visited as part of the new survey. History is for everyone and none of us should be gatekeepers to information, so the inclusion of these sites in the official record is a way to ensure their place in the history books.
The easiest way to view the record is on the HED Map Viewer. And the layer you need to select is “Defence Heritage”
Download and view the dataset
This process is for the more technologically ambitious user. You can download the entire Defence Heritage dataset from the OpenDataNI portal. I have linked the dataset page here. You will also need to download the free software package QGIS or another Geo Information System software package of your choice.