The Countryside

Photo of hazel shrub over pavement

English Name: Hazel Botanical Name (Latin): Corylus avellana Irish Name: Coll Order: DICOTYLEDONES Family: BETULACEAE Brief Description: Shrubby, deciduous tree; catkins (“lamb’s tails”) appearing in early Spring before leaves; leaves hairy, oval; hazel nuts enclosed in leafy bracts.

Carsten Krieger

Photo of hazel shrub over pavement
Carsten Krieger

Photo of hazel shrub over pavement

Carsten Krieger

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Glendalough

Glendalough is a habitat of woodland, lakes, fen and moorland.The slidefile is an image which shows all the above features.The original Irish name is Gleann da Locha means the valley of two lakes and these are still the main natural features which dominate the area.

Glendalough

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Adventure Sports in general need no playing fields, no athletics arenas, no sports halls. They rely almost entirely on the natural countryside, and so they are (or ought to be!) the realm of devoted environmentalists.

Environmentalists are badly needed in Ireland. We have changed from being a predominantly rural society to an urban one in a few decades, from a society which largely understood the rural countryside to a society in which there are children who have never seen a cow. It is also a society which expects more of life than ever before. This is no bad expectation, provided it is not achieved at the cost of the expectations of others and especially the expectations of our children.

Impact

Looking at our activities, we want to leave the countryside as little changed as possible, for the future enjoyment of other. So, as we walk or paddle or rock-climb or mountain bike, we have to remember that we may be doing damage, in fact that generally we are doing damage. "Leave No Trace"(*) is an excellent motto, but you don't have to walk far in Wicklow to see the damage that we have done. It is our responsibility to do as little permanent damage as possible, and where we have done damage, to try and repair it.

A year ago an ever-widening straight black strip could be seen on the east slope of Djouce Mountain, in County Wicklow. Today there's a path, and heather is being replanted. The path means that there's a trace all right, but it is one which will support the current usage instead of continuing to spread black denuded bog across the hillside. This was all done by voluntary labour, a fine example of repaying the countryside for the enjoyment that people have obtained there.

It is always easy to blame others - in the west it's the farmers with all that overgrazing; it's the mountain bikers, their wheels locked in descent creating gullies; it's the walkers, there are so many of them; it's rock-climbers, they scare nesting birds.(If you belong to any of these groups, please don't contact the website in righteous indignation, it is only an example of how we all like to blame somoene else). If you enjoy the countryside it is your responsibility to conserve it (not preserve it, that's impossible) for your own sake, and for others' sakes. This, our Natural Heritage is only now beginning to get the attention it badly needs.

Let us look at the countryside which we want to use and enjoy. None of it is "wilderness", it has all been shaped by our ancestors going back to the Neolithic farmers and their successors who cut down trees to make space for farming. The Burren is a prime example - that bare limestone pavement looks as near primeval wilderness as you could find, but it was once wooded, and if grazing stopped it would slowly revert. The wonderfully varied and attractive countryside which we now have is the work of generations of farmers from Neolithic times to to-day, and if we don't always like what we see, by and large they have done a pretty good job.

Agricultural Land of Carlow

A view from the top of Ballycrinnigan Rock in the Blackstairs Mountains in County Carlow. It shows a variety of different habitats including dry heath habitats, conifer plantation and in the backgound agricultural land.

Betsey Hickey

Agricultural Land of Carlow
Betsey Hickey

Agricultural Land of Carlow

Betsey Hickey

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Who Owns the Countryside?

Firstly there are commercial bodies who have to get money out of their holdings. Farmers are having increasing difficulty in making a living, and intensive farming and some EU grants aren't conducive to conservation. The new Fischler grants which look to be partly environmentally driven should be helpful. Coillte too is commercially driven, its remit is to make a profit and we should be grateful for its increasing interest both in the environment and in supporting recreation.

Private farmland makes up by far the largest proportion of the countryside. Adventure sports are mainly interested in the uplands and the shores.
Semi-State forests are the largest landowners in the country - we use their woods enormously, though we wish they'd plant fewer sitka spruce and more broad leaves.
Rivers, streams, lakes and canals are widespread. These are valuable for angling and for commercial (mainly holiday) use. They are part private, part state property.

The Boardwalk in Glendalough

This photograph shows a lady sitting by the boardwalk in Glendalough overlooking the valley below. It was built using old unused railway sleepers. There was a great need for this boardwalk as the route along the top of the Spinks cliffs in Glendalough is a popular route taken by many walkers. Over use of this walk in recent times had resulted in trail erosion close to the cliff edge which was very dangerous to the unsuspecting walker. The boardwalk itself is about 2 and a half miles long and has viewing spots along the way to admire the beautiful valley with the upper and lower lakes below. There are many known walks that meet up with the boardwalk in Geldalough, passing by Lugduff, Gelnmalour and other areas along the Wicklow Way.

The Boardwalk in Glendalough

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Bodies whose main aim is care of the environment

The National Parks. Their role is primarily conservation. They have laid out sleeper tracks over the bog, but you will be firmly told that this is not for the convenience of walkers, but to save the bog flora which was being damaged. Nevertheless we should be grateful to them for having provided us with a wonderful recreational resource.

The two Departments of the Environment, North and South, who have established a comprehensive system of environmental classifications (SACs, AONBs, SSIs, etc.).

These classifications are not popular with many landowners, who see their property rights interfered with, but they fulfil a very necessary role in conserving wild life and flora (though sometimes we don't like it when they keep us out!).

Windfarms

The biggest rows over the protection of the environment are currently over wind farms. There is no doubt that wind-generated power is preferable to fossil fuel power, and therefore in principle we welcome it. But most people who have seen a group of fifty or a hundred windmills whirling away high up on hill feel a Don Quixote-like urge to go ride them down. Even when we exile them to the middle of the Irish Sea, they may be a menace to migrating birds. Probably they are a necessary evil, like the motorways cutting wide sweeps across rural Ireland. All that can be done is to be selective about where they are located, and to remind ourselves that when a better source of electricity is found that they could, in theory, be removed.

Websites

Gallery

John Treacy winning silver

John Treacy pictured winning the silver medal, in the marathon at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984

© INPHO

John Treacy winning silver - © INPHO

Athlone Canal

This picture is taken from south of the town near where the Canal enters the Shannon. The Canal which is approximately a mile and a quarter in length is situated west of Athlone and was built by Thomas Omer in 1757 to by-pass the stretch of river which flows through the town. The by-pass was necessary because the river had a series of shallows and rapids as well as some man-made obstacles such as eel-weirs which impeded the navigation. There is a natural fall of over four foot between the point where the canal commenced, north of Athlone (near the No 1 Battery) and where it re-entered the Shannon. To overcome this drop a large lock was constructed – when the Canal went out of use following the Shannon Navigation Works the Lock was used to power a mill.