Slieve Bloom Environment Park Nature Reserve

The high rainfall in the mountains together with the cooler temperatures are ideal for the formation of blanket peat. The initial trigger for blanket peat formation in the Slieve Blooms came about 4,000 years ago when the climate of Ireland became wetter.

Heavy rainfall caused minerals such as iron to be washed out or leached from the surface layers of the soil. These were deposited lower down as a rusty brown, watertight layer called an iron pan. When this happened the soil surface became easily waterlogged and therefore favoured the accumulation and spread of blanket peat over large areas. The peat is rich in the remains of Bog Moss, Seer Sedge and bog Cotton, together with the woody parts of heathers.

Today peat in the Slieve Blooms blanket bogs reaches depths of up to 2m in parts and incorporates the stumps of pine trees that were once part of the woodlands of the area. The visitor to Slieve Bloom will be rewarded by a glimpse of a wilderness landscape which has become a rare commodity in Europe and is under increasing threat in Ireland. The original area of mountain blanket bog in Ireland was about 430,000ha. Almost 100,000ha has been afforested with conifers and 400ha has been cutaway. Many of our mountain blanket bogs are seriously damaged by erosion, overgrazing and peat cutting which are accelerating the decline in the extent of this bog type.

At present a small number of sites are protected in National Nature Reserves under the Wildlife Act. If the present rates of exploitation continue, the remaining unprotected blanket bogs will have been destroyed or seriously damaged by 2010. Fortunately the Slieve Bloom's contain a mountain blanket bog area that has escaped extinction and is conserved for present and future generations to study and enjoy. The Slieve Blooms is one of the least grazed and burned blanket bog areas in the country and the vegitation growth is luxuriant as a result.

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