The Beauty and Diversity of the Irish Landscape – (1) her Peat Bogs

Marie

Aug 1

We may be known for our coastline, mountains, rivers and lakes but I'm starting with my personal favourite - can there be anything more mysterious, bleak and beautiful than an empty bog.

And bog we have aplenty! - one sixth of the island is peatland. Traditionally, the land has been associated with poverty and considered useless apart from the provision of cheap household heating fuel. As more and more of the planet's bogs disappear due to reclamation and development, a new appreciation for what's left of this ecological system has emerged in the past few decades and we are now finally proud to perceive it as part of our identity and heritage.

So - what is a bog?

In very simplified terms, a bog is a flat wetland that accumulates dead plant material over thousands of years. This accumulation can eventually measure anything from 2 - 12 metres in depth.

Although most bogs appear similar, there are 2 distinct types. Blanket Bogs are the most common and found wherever there is high rainfall so are typically found in the west of Ireland and in mountainous areas. They are actually manmade - in so far as they are found in areas where original forest was cleared by our first farmers.

Raised Bogs are found in the centre of the country and were formed naturally when the Ice Age left behind a bumpy, poorly drained, plain with thousands of tiny lakes which eventually filled up with decomposing vegetation.

Sphagnum Moss forms the living heart of the bog. Floating on layers of partially rotted plant material, it acts as a sponge - trapping and holding as much as 20 times its own weight in water.

From the 1700's, bogs were cut by hand for personal use in the home...

Days were spent in the bog, cutting each sod by hand. They were left to dry and then stacked into small heaps, eventually being transported back to the homeplace to be stored for winter. Nowadays, most are cut by machine but the piles of sods can still be seen along the side of road - ready for collection.

The Raised Bogs of the midlands may cover less area but they are deeper and therefore have been exploited commercially for decades. Thankfully - better late than never I suppose - the commercial, mechanical destruction of the bogs has ceased and they are now being developed as nature reserves where their unique flora and fauna can once again flourish.

Some bogscapes from Ireland's west coast and midlands for you to enjoy....

The Will-o-the-Wisp has long been sighted by weary travellers at night - particularly over the bogs. Attracted by an eerie glow that looks like a lantern, they follow the light deeper and deeper into the bog until - well - until they drown in the bog itself- either due to a misstep or exhaustion! Of course, science will tell us that it's actually bog gas seeping up through the earth and interacting with the natural resources to create blue flames - but we know better!!!

Isn't this great - its the Corlea Trackway - a stretch of road across the bog dated to 148BC. Metal axes were skilfully used to split oak logs into planks which were pegged to the underlying peat and gaps were filled with saplings and brushwood. It's reckoned that hundreds of workers were needed for such a project, suggesting that it was more than a typical causeway across the wet ground and was perhaps a ceremonial route linking regional royal and ritual sites. Alas, its very magnificence was its undoing - it was so heavy that it sank into the bog within ten years, remaining perfectly preserved for almost two millennia!

Today, this 18 metre stretch of track can be viewed in its original location. At the Visitor's Centre, you can learn about the excavation and conservation process. ( Open March - Nov : No Admission Charge).