A conservation programme for the 1,000-year-old Clonfert Cathedral in Co Galway aims to develop it as a place for study and research.
The programme, which has been published by the Heritage Council, focuses on conserving the cathedral's world famous Romanesque doorway.
However, it also provides policies for conserving other elements of the complex, which was founded originally as a monastery in 560AD by St Brendan and was rebuilt in 1167 after it was burned by the Vikings.
The cathedral building is regarded as being of exceptional significance, with architectural elements dating from the 12th and early 13th centuries.
The Heritage Council has been spending about €40,000 annually on works at the building since 2002, with assistance from the World Monuments Fund and Galway County Council.
It was in 1579 that Queen Elizabeth I wrote to the Bishop of Clonfert and proposed erecting a university there for "instruction and education of youth in learning" as it was "neere (sic) to the middle of the realme whereby all men may with small travel send their children thither". Subsequently, however, Dublin won out with the decision to construct Trinity College.
Ms Mary Hanna, architect with the Heritage Council, said that the long-term aim of the project was to develop a place of study, which reflected the "spirit of the cathedral during the middle ages".
Apart from the famous doorway, on which work has continued for several years, the building's windows have been taken out and restored. The cathedral also houses five species of bat and has been home for barn owls and other fauna.
The report stresses that its setting on the Shannon banks and within the larger landscape of bog and callows is very important, and points out that the complex was one of a group of early ecclesiastical settlements dating from a time when water transport was more significant than now.
