⁴Wakeman, W.F. "Proceedings and Papers." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth 1.4 (1890): 264-65.
The Board of Works is today known as the Office of Public Works (OPW). Wakeman objected strenuously to this restoration, undertaken by the architect Thomas Newingham Deane c. 1886. In his report, Deane wrote, "Foundation stones of a further wall to the west have been discovered four feet below the surface of the bog. A careful examination is being made of the interior, and the cells are being cleared out. I propose to further examine the debris at the western end." (Deane, T.N. "Appendix to the fifty-fifth Report of the Commissioner of Public Works, Ireland." Appendix F, 63. 1886-7.)
Deane was appointed the first Superintendent of National Monuments in 1875, with some controversy regarding his qualifications. An article in the Irish Builder (July 15, 1875, 193) concludes that "...Mr. Deane is, without doubt, an architect of recognised ability and experience; but it must be allowed that the general Irish public are not aware that our worthy architect has ever made the ancient architecture of Ireland a subject of previous study..."
Wakeman wrote that the Cloghanmore stones, "through the reckless operations of ignorant 'conservers,' have been so mutilated that it is no longer possible to form an exact idea of their original peculiarities...Few visitors to the spot will probably be able, without infinite trouble, to recognise this greatest of all the archaic remains of Glen Malin...In the first place, the monument has lately been transformed from a Dumha into a Caiseal. The enclosure has been further lined by a wall of dry stonework, some eight feet, or so, in height, by an average of twelve feet in thickness. Fortunately, this deplorable excrescence was built on the outside; or, rather, its interior face is flush with that of the blocks which form the pristine oval. All the stones used in the construction of this disgraceful sham appear to have belonged to a great carn, or carns, by which the chambers already noticed were anciently surmounted. The entire of the modern work of so-called conservation, here, can only be described as a mockery, a delusion, and a snare, to all unwary archaeological students by whom the site may be visited."
William Borlase wrote in 1897, "In its present condition of restoration by the Board of Works, it is hard to say exactly what its previous appearance was." (Borlase, William Copeland. The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distribution, Structural Characteristics, and Affinities in Other Countries. Vol. 1. London: Chapman & Hall, Ld., 1897. 240-44.) This selection may be read here.
Kenneth McNally, however, writing in 2006, called the restoration "a perfunctory tidying-up project." (McNally, Kenneth. Ireland's Ancient Stones; a Megalithic Heritage. Belfast: Appletree, 2006. 102-103.)