The Bog of Allen () is a large

raised bog Raised bogs, also called ombrotrophic bogs, are acidic, wet habitats that are poor in mineral salts and are home to flora and fauna that can cope with such extreme conditions. Raised bogs, unlike fens, are exclusively fed by precipitation (ombro ...

in the centre of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

between the rivers Liffey and Shannon. The bog's 958 square kilometres (370 square miles) stretch into counties

Offaly County Offaly (; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in honour of Philip II of Spain ...

Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...

Kildare Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 10,302, making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. It is home to Kildare Cathedral, historically the site of an important abbey said to have been founded by Saint ...

Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

, and

Westmeath County Westmeath (; or simply ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It formed part of the historic Kingdom of ...

. Peat is mechanically harvested on a large scale by Bórd na Móna, the government-owned peat production industry. The area has kilometres of

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

industrial railway An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British r ...

s for transporting turf to processing plants and turf powered

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

s. In addition, the cutover portions are used as area for grazing. The bog is crossed by the Grand Canal and the

Royal Canal The Royal Canal () is a canal originally built for freight and passenger transportation from Dublin to Longford in Ireland. It is one of two canals from Dublin to the River Shannon and was built in direct competition to the Grand Canal. Th ...

Preservationists

The

Irish Peatland Conservation Council The Irish Peatland Conservation Council (IPCC; ) is a national charitable organisation established in 1982 to conserve and protect a representative sample of Bog, bogs in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and to campaign on bog-related issues. Hi ...

describes the bog as "an important area of peatland, as much a part of Irish natural heritage as the

Book of Kells The Book of Kells (; ; Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I. 8 sometimes known as the Book of Columba) is an illustrated manuscript and Celts, Celtic Gospel book in Latin, containing the Gospel, four Gospels of the New Testament togeth ...

." The bog is much reduced after centuries of industrial exploitation and recent encroachments by development. Efforts are underway to preserve sections of it.

Archaeological significance

The peatlands of the Bog of Allen contain a valuable part of the archaeological record. Due to the special preservation conditions within peat, many kinds of artefact which do not normally survive are preserved; these include wooden structures and objects. In many parts of the Bog of Allen industrial milling has uncovered archaeological remains such as trackways. These trackways are wooden walkways constructed through prehistory and into the medieval period which allowed people and animals to cross the extensive areas of peatland, which can give us an insight into the economy and way of life of the societies that existed around the bog. The preservation conditions in bogs also preserve a range of palaeoenvironmental evidence such as pollen and plant macrofossils which are often studied alongside the archaeological evidence to inform about the environment on and around the bog.

Palaeoenvironmental studies

Numerous studies have focused on reconstructing past environments through the study of palaeoenvironmental proxies preserved in the Bog of Allen. Bogs such as these are of particular interest as

ombrotrophic Ombrotrophic ("cloud-fed"), from Ancient Greek ὄμβρος (''ómvros'') meaning "rain" and τροφή (''trofí'') meaning "food"), refers to Soil, soils or vegetation which receive all of their water and nutrients from precipitation, rather ...

bogs are very sensitive to changes in precipitation. A current study carried out on Daingean Bog is investigating the use of

testate amoebae Testate amoebae (formerly thecamoebians, Testacea or Thecamoeba) are a polyphyletic group of unicellular amoeboid protists, which differ from naked amoebae in the presence of a test (biology), test that partially encloses the cell, with an apert ...

to reconstruct changes in precipitation and to link this to climate variability during the

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

. Such studies are of value as they may be informative about the response of past societies to climate change.

References

External links

Irish Peatland Conservation Council
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bog Of Allen Bogs of the Republic of Ireland Landforms of County Kildare Landforms of County Laois Landforms of County Offaly Landforms of County Westmeath

Preservationists

Archaeological significance

Palaeoenvironmental studies

See also

References

External links