Remembering a Great Holiday.
It’s a strange week here, as everywhere else in the world. I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it difficult to concentrate on anything much other than cleaning and tidying. The bee shed got de-cluttered and vacuumed and I can find things in there now. I’m walking for miles every day to try and get away from the gloom and doom. Not having a television bombarding me with bad news is a real bonus . Hazel and willow are out along the roadsides, and the home apiary bees are enjoying willow down here. I was pretty lucky to have had a holiday in Ireland this year, and I’m just going to live it again this afternoon as I share it with you.
Tricia took me to this truly spectacular submerged glacial woodland called The Gearagh, 2km from the Munster town of Macroom in County Cork. When you first clap eyes on it you wonder what on earth happened here. It looks like the aftermath of some primordial apocalypse. Some think it’s like the Everglades without crocs and gators. Did you know that the Florida Everglades is the only place on earth where crocodiles and alligators coexist? There are a series of pathways and you can walk close to the water sometimes and get up close to vast reedbeds. I find bulrushes intriguing and enjoyed finding great stands of them. The day was cold and wet so we didn’t loiter but the views were pretty unique, and you could lose yourself in history. We did the latter later in a coffee shop/bookshop selling booklets describing the hydro-electric scheme and how it happened.
Ancient Forest.
The trees were indeed ancient till 1954 saw the need for hydro- generated electricity, and so several hundred acres of forest were felled, farmers relocated and the land flooded. The Gearagh was one of the few alluvial forests in the world and the only one west of the River Rhine. It was formed at the end of the ice age when meltwater from the glaciers exploded out from containment in the upper Lee valley. Rocks and soil were forcibly carried down at high velocity to form islands separated by streams and the woodlands flourished. Oak, ash, hazel and hawthorn trees predominated thriving on the alluvial soil consisting of loose unconsolidated sediment of silt clay and gravel. Some of the trees felled in the fifties were centuries old and stood in medieval times.
World Heritage Site.
The ancient woodlands have gone but the area attracts wildlife, local walkers and tourists. Reed beds and bulrush thrive alongside freshwater pearls, Atlantic salmon, whooper swans, kingfisher and otters. It was designated a Ramsar (Iran) Wetland site after the convention signed in 1971, and became a World Heritage Site on 30th May 1990.
