Glengad () is a

Gaeltacht A ( , , ) is a district of Ireland, either individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home. The districts were first officially recognised ...

village in the parish of Kilcommon in northwest

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

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 ...

. It is also known as Dooncarton (), a name which comes from an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

tribal chieftain called Ciortan, a character who appears in the

Ulster Cycle The Ulster Cycle (), formerly known as the Red Branch Cycle, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the Ulaid. It is set far in the past, in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly counties Armagh, Do ...

legend of the Táin Bó Flidhais. The village which is largely linear and without a main street, lies to the northwest and northeast of Dooncarton Hill in the parish of Kilcommon in Erris. The different areas of Glengad are known under different names. Glengad East is known as Baile Grainne. Middle Glengad was known as Spleckstown and Baile Lecan. West Glengad or Old Glengad was and still is known as Sean Bhaile. Every house in the village looks over Shruth Fhada Con meaning Long hound bay but which is commonly called Sruwaddacon Bay or Broadhaven Bay below. It has a proliferation of prehistoric archaeology including several megalithic tombs of differing types including wedge, court and portal dolmens, and a well preserved

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...

in Baile Lecan. Glengadview

Much of Glengad is a

Special Area of Conservation A special area of conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

and Sruwaddacon Bay is both an S.A.C. and a S.P.A (Birds Directive) – Special Protected Area for Birds. It is also an E.U. protected N.H.A. (Natural Heritage Area) In May and June the air is filled with the songs of the sky larks hovering so high in the sky that they are almost invisible. Goldcrests abound in winter. Unfortunately for the local sand martins whose nest holes were in the cliffs at Glengad Beach,

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

sent in their diggers and removed the cliffs, placing nets to stop the birds returning. The 'new' temporary cliffs they rebuilt mechanically don't seem to hold the same appeal for the species. Caubeen Mountain (Dooncarton) sweeps down to Broadhaven Bay and Sruwaddacon Estuary and has some of the most spectacular and scenic views to be found in the county if not the entire country. Glengad is the proposed landfall site for the contentious pipeline from the

Corrib gas field The Corrib gas project () is a developed natural gas deposit located in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately off the northwest coast of County Mayo, Ireland. The project includes a natural gas pipeline and an onshore gas processing plant, which com ...

, and is the ongoing scene of

protests A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration, or remonstrance) is a public act of objection, disapproval or dissent against political advantage. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate ...

against the project.

Major landslide area

A major

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

consisting of 40 separate landslides hit the Glengad area on 19 September 2003. The previous recorded landslide in the parish was in 1937. The

Geological Survey of Ireland Geological Survey Ireland or Geological Survey of Ireland (), founded in 1845, is the National Earth Science agency of Ireland. Overview Geological Survey Ireland is a division of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment a ...

produced a report on reasons for the major landslide.

References

Sources

* Nolan, R. Within the Mullet (1997) Longford * Noone, Fr. Sean, Where the Sun Sets (1997) Pollathomas
Stonepages
* Westropp, T. J. Promontory Forts of Erris (1912) Dublin {{County Mayo Erris Gaeltacht towns and villages Gaeltacht places in County Mayo Towns and villages in County Mayo

Major landslide area

See also

References

Sources