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Clochar na gCon Bog, Co. Galway

• County: Galway
• Area: 198ha
• Bogland Type: Lowland or Atlantic Blanket Bog
• Natural Heritage Area Number: 2034
• Year Purchased by IPCC: 1996
• Year Declared National Nature Reserve: 1999
• National Grid Reference: M 050 300
• How to get there: It is advisable to use the Discovery Series Map Sheet Number 45 when visiting this bog. Clochar na gCon is located north of the R336 road which runs east of Galway city to Spiddle and Inverin. Follow this road to Spiddle. To visit the reserve continue travelling eastwards until you reach the Poitin Still pub and a minor road running northwards. Turn northwards along this minor road and drive for 2miles. The road ends at a lake marked as Loughaunnagun on Sheet 45. The reserve lies west of this lake.

  The IPCC can accept no liability for injury to persons visiting the site.

Further Information on Reserve

Background

In 1996 the IPCC purchased 198ha of Beal an Chuain Bog in Co. Galway with the help of friends of the bog in Ireland and the Netherlands. Dúchas raised an additional 75% of the cost from the European Union. This action prompted Udaras na Gaeltachta to change the land use designation on the adjacent townland of Clochar na gCon from turbary to its use for education and amenity effectively protecting an additional 444ha. Further negotiations with a local Co-op (Comharchumann Shailearna Teoranta) led to the sale of turbary rights over 182ha to Dúchas substantially increasing the size of the reserve. The sustainable development of Clochar na gCon is being overseen by a Management Group with representatives of these four interest groups.

Heritage Award

Irish Peatland Conservation Council scored another success when it won a £5,600 Heritage Council Community Based Grant Award for its work on Clochar na gCon Bog.

IPCC was lauded by Mr Eamon O Cuiv T.D. for its ecological, heritage, cultural and infrastructure survey of this Conamara Bog with a view to using the bog as a focal point for the promotion of tourism, education and the Irish language for the benefit of the local community.

Mr O Cuiv who presented the award to Dr Peter Foss, IPCC Chairman, said he was particularly pleased with the work the IPCC had done on this bog. He pointed out that his wife was from Spiddle so he knew that particular tract well.

Highlights of the Clochar na gCon Bog Survey

192 plant, animal & bird species were recorded on the bog.

8 vegetation types were distinguished including sloped blanket bog, wet blanket bog, areas with variable water level, dry rocky heathland, streams, lakes, swallow holes & deciduous woodland.

11 breeding birds were recorded including Skylark, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Reed Bunting, Merlin, Snipe, Red Grouse, Northern Wheatear, Golden Plover, Common Gull & Wren.

One pair of Merlin, 1% of Irelands breeding population, were breeding on a lake island covered with deciduous woodland.

7 pairs of Golden Plover, 2.3% of Ireland's breeding population, were recorded on the bog.

The Large Heath Butterfly (Coenonympha tullia) , last seen in West Galway in 1969 was recorded regularly on Clochar na gCon bog. It is in decline all over Europe due to habitat loss.

The bug, Psallus confusus was recorded in a small oak woodland on the bog - a new record for this species in Ireland.

A pool bug Salda morio was found on Clochar na gCon Bog. This species of wet areas and pools has not been recorded in Ireland since 1898.

St Daboec's Heath (Daboecia cantabrica) is prolific on drier rocky parts of Clochar na gCon Bog. First recorded in Conamara in 1700. It was reputedly worn by women to protect their chastity.

IPCC's Clochar na gCon Survey

Two Dutch students who spent five weeks during the summer doing an ecological survey of Clochar na gCon bog, at the invitation of the Irish Peatland Conservation Council found it a totally worthwhile experience.

Romke Aukema and Maarten Scherrenburg, who are studying Forest and Nature Management at the International Agriculture College in Larenstein said that initially they didn't really know what to expect. But as they became more familiar with the bog they were amazed at the variety of vegetation and bird life there.

While they were quite familiar with the Dutch plants and habitats everything they found on the Conamara bog was a surprise. In Holland bog asphodel is a rare sight. "In Ireland they grow all over the place" they noted.

Each day they conducted the survey they found something new. Although it is unusual to find cranberry on an blanket bog the two students found it at Clochar na gCon. They also found breeding merlin and golden plover.

A typical day in their life last June when they stayed with Breandan Ó Tuairisg at Indreabhán, saw them biking to the bog, taking a few quadrats, walking around to become familiar with the landscape and checking its boundaries which are delimited by lakes and streams. They made daily records of the birds they heard and the plant life they saw on the bog.

They made recommendations for the future management of the bog.

The main one is that Clochar na gCon should be formally designated as a Special Area of Conservation, and that any walks being planned through the bog should be routed so that the natural habitat with its fragile vegetation and precious bird life is protected.

They would like Irish people to "take a closer look at the bogs and be educated more about the wonderful plants and unusual bird life to be found on them".

They praised the fact that a local co-operative is involved in renovating an old school-house as a visitor's centre for Clochar na gCon and said that this will be of great assistance in the bog education programme. The students also felt that it was a good idea for IPCC to have linked up with the local co-operative movement about plans for the area because they said it was only with local people involved that bogs like Clochar na gCon could be saved for future generations.

The two young men have another year of study before they qualify as landscape engineers specialising in nature management and conservation.

Afterwards Maarten hopes to work with a small private company and Romke intends getting involved in ecological surveys such as the one they completed at Clochar na gCon.

Prior to coming to Ireland they did a project on one of the last pieces of bogland in Holland. "We made a plan for a buffer zone at that bog because it was in danger of drying out." - Rose Costello - Taken from Peatland News Winter 1998

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