Vinegar Hill - A wasted asset!

I took my two children for their first visit to Vinegar Hill yesterday (Easter Saturday) and it certainly matched my expectations. I lasted visited the hill in 1967/68 and not much seems to have changed - at least in a positive sense! There were about 8 or 9 other people there when we arrived and during the hour that we spent there nobody else disturbed our peace. A bad access road leads to a generous car park which features a fairly uninspiring 1798 memorial. The memorial conveniently fails to mention the 100 or so hapless protestants who were murdered at the windmill during the rebel occupation in June 1798. A small plaque at ground level commemorates the planting of a 'Liberty' tree in 1989 which in an ironic twist is missing - presumably hacked down by some village idiot. Ironic when you consider that local Unionists use to burn a Liberty tree on Vinegar Hill for some years after the 1798 rebellion!

There was less in the way of rubbish than I had expected, the odd drinks can but not much else apart from rabbit droppings. The windmill itself appeared unchanged since my 1960s visit. There is no signage, maps or anything useful to give the uninformed much clue as to the battle that took place on the hill on the 21st June 1798. What should be a major heritage/tourist attraction is little more than a badly maintained hillock with a splendid view. The pathway from the summit down to Templeshannon is only for the very agile or mountain goats and is in serious need of attention.

When compared with what has been done at the Battle of the Boyne site http://www.battleoftheboyne.ie/ Vinegar Hill is really is a crying shame and speaks volumes for the effectiveness of our local public representatives.

Naseby in Northamptonshire, where the Parliamentary forces finally broke the Royalist army of Charles.I. in 1645, is a battlefield site only now being fully developed and possibly would be worth investigating as a prelude to doing something worthwhile with Vinegar Hill. http://www.naseby.com/

It's 213 years since the battle so taking a little longer and getting it right rather that slapping up another version of the National 1798 Centre would seem wise. That the town is sitting on a tourist goldmine would seem obvious but maybe you know better.