Uncertainty hangs over the future development of the Giant's Causeway in Co Antrim, writes Frank McDonald.
Antrim's Causeway Coast has been described as "more than a geological wonder and an outstanding scenic resource" because it is said to be "one of the few landscapes that have directly influenced the way men think about art and nature".
At its heart lies the Giant's Causeway, the spectacular formation of polygonal basalt rocks which was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1986, putting it on a par with Stonehenge, the Great Barrier Reef and the Pyramids of Giza.
But like the Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare, the causeway is under pressure from development.
Although the site is owned by the National Trust for Northern Ireland, its perimeter is being targeted for the provision of new visitor facilities.
The existing visitor centre was destroyed by fire in April 2000, and the local authority, Moyle District Council, has just tendered for architects to rebuild it, in advance of the preparation of a comprehensive management plan for the Causeway Coast.
The entire coastline from Portrush to Ballycastle, with the Giant's Causeway as its centrepiece, was designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1989.
But it is now, 13 years later, that a management plan is being prepared.
Under UNESCO rules, management plans must be adopted for all world heritage sites by 2004, a deadline which the British Department of Culture, Media and Sport has pledged will be met. UNESCO also requires adequate "buffer zones" to protect them.
The Department of the Environment in Belfast, in a planning policy statement issued in 1999, said it would operate "a presumption in favour of the preservation" of the Giant's Causeway by scrutinising all development proposals within a 4km radius.
Landscape Design Associates, its consultants on the preparation of a management plan, said in July it was "imperative" that a pattern of ownership and visitor management was maintained to safeguard a site of such importance for the whole of Ireland.
The consultants stressed the need to have a "clear strategy" for visitor facilities to deal with development pressures and said the fire at the existing visitor centre had "provided the opportunity to radically review the future provision of facilities at the site".
The guiding principle, according to their recommendations for a management plan, is that visitor facilities at the Giant's Causeway should "serve the needs of the World Heritage Site, putting the visitor experience before the need for commercialism".
Although tourism accounts for less than 2 per cent of Northern Ireland's gross domestic product, it is enormously important on the Causeway Coast, giving employment to nearly 20 per cent of north Antrim's workforce, a fact not lost on Moyle District Council.
The council owns a nine-acre site containing the fire-damaged visitor centre and car-park.
The revenue it raises, around £250,000 (€397,580) a year, is equivalent to nine pence in the pound on rates, making the Giant's Causeway a significant money-spinner.
Even as a working group composed of Moyle District Council, the Department of the Environment, the National Trust and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board was considering proposals for a long-term solution, the council decided last year that it would sell its site.
Two offers were received, one for £4 million (€6.36 million) from the National Trust and the other for £5 million (€7.95 million) from a local developer, Mr Seymour Sweeney, who had already acquired an adjoining 19-acre site with an eye to its potential. Mr Sweeney, whose Seaport Investments Ltd has been active on the north Antrim coast, particularly in Portrush, unveiled plans for a much larger visitor centre at the Giant's Causeway, as well as a hotel, arts and crafts centre, a pub, tearooms and car-parking.
He had engaged Anthony O'Neill and Associates, architects of the Brú na mBoinne visitor centre near Newgrange, one of the two World Heritage Sites in the Republic (the other is Skellig Michael, off the Kerry coast) to design the new visitor facilities.
Mr Sweeney's site includes an old schoolhouse known as The Nook and in July 2001 he secured permission to turn it into a pub. The National Trust took legal action, but agreed to withdraw after being assured that strict planning controls would be applied.
Moyle District Council eventually decided not to sell its nine-acre site to Mr Sweeney.
Although unionist members, particularly the DUP, were in favour of proceeding with the sale, nationalist members were against it, and they hold a slim majority on the 15-member council.
Frustrated by its inability to find a solution, the council suggested that Mr Sweeney should work with the National Trust to find common ground on the way forward.
It is understood that these talks have now concluded without any resolution of the issues at stake.
The trust owns the Causeway Hotel, but insists that its primary concern is to protect the Giant's Causeway against haphazard development, such as the proposed arts and crafts centre, which was turned down by the Planning Appeals Commission last July.
The central issue now facing Ms Angela Smith, the new British minister in charge of environment and heritage matters, is whether the planning control area around the causeway with a 4km radius should be be formalised as a "buffer zone" to protect it.
Her predecessor, Mr Dermot Nesbitt, warned that any moratorium on development in this area would have "very real adverse impacts" on Bushmills and Portballintrae, both of which fall within the zone, and might also delay provision of a "world-class" visitor centre.