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The Gearagh

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The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
The Gearagh
Phone:
+353 21 427 3251

Address:
Macroom, Ireland

The Gearagh is a submerged glacial woodland and nature reserve two kilometres east of Macroom, County Cork, Ireland. It is located at the point where the River Lee descends from the mountains and widens at an alluvial plain, and stretches for roughly five kilometres, bounded by the townlands of Toonsbridge, Illaunmore and Anahala. It was until recently densely populated with ancient oak trees and the last surviving full oak forest in western Europe. Its Irish name, An Gaoire, is derived from the Irish word Gaorthadh, roughly the Wooden River. It was flooded in 1954 to facilitate the building of two hydro-electric dams in Carrigadrohid and Inniscarra, which provide electricity for the nearby city of Cork. The area is now part of the plants' upper reservoir. The development required that the region was flooded, and so lead to the felling of hundreds of trees and the removal and relocation of tracts of people. Many of the trees were centuries old and had grown since the medieval period. Today only their stumps survive, in flood land, giving the area a ghostly and almost lunar appearance.Today it comprises wide but shallow water enclosing a series of small islands separated by anastomosing, mostly flat, river streams. It remains an area of outstanding natural beauty, with a diverse ecological system and wide variety of plants, birds and fish, including freshwater pearl mussel, Atlantic salmon, whooper swans, kingfishers and otters. It is designated a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, and also enjoys international protection as an EU Special Area of Conservation of 558 ha. Part of the SAC is designated a nature reserve under the Irish Wildlife Act and the reservoir is a wildfowl sanctuary.
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