Next week I will go to Ireland because Ireland will host the Teams Bridge European Championships this year. I will not participate but my wife is representing Estonia there in women’s team bridge. What am I going to do there? Well, I plan to see lots of geologically interesting places. I plan to drive around Ireland, mostly near Dublin because we will stay there, but I believe I will make few longer trips as well.
I have to confess that I do not know Ireland’s geology very well. I know there is Giant’s Causeway (in Northern Ireland) which I would like to visit, although it is quite a distance away from Dublin. I know few more places but really not enough to keep me busy for about 10 days. So, I am turning to you because maybe I have some readers from Ireland (or those who have visited Ireland) who know what are the most interesting geolocations (mostly in Leinster) that definitely should be visited. I am an omnivore — interested in all types of rocks and structures.
Lots of Ireland is covered by Carboniferous sediments (lots of limestone). Some great fossils in this but for my money the best stuff is the older rocks underneath. The Tertiary volcanics in Ulster (Giant’s Causeway) are OK, but nothing special, I would say.
Unfortunately for you, the best rocks (and scenery) are mostly in the West. Also best outcrops as glacially scoured. Near Dublin you have the Wicklow Mountains which are fairly bog-standard granite. Connemara is my favourite part of Ireland geologically (Donegal second). It contains a wide range of sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks. South Mayo is rather good as well. You have gold-bearing shear zones (with fuchsite) and some rather messed-about-with ophiolites near Croagh Patrick.
Rather than waffle on here, some posts you should look at.
Firstly, Alan Pitts is currently in Ireland on a field course. Check out his blog and in particular http://notnecessarilygeology.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/my-irish-summer-2012/. This covers where he is visiting in Ireland. He is based near Connemara at the moment…..
My PhD field area was in Connemara, but I’ve not blogged about it much. But see:
http://all-geo.org/metageologist/2012/03/my-favourite-map/
and
http://all-geo.org/metageologist/2011/08/accretionary-wedge-–-37-sexy-geology
Hope this helps. Have fun, I am jealous!
Also, given the focus of your blog, I guess you will be interested in Dog’s Bay near Roundstone in Connemara. This has sand rich in foraminifera. Also beaches a little further west such as Ballyconnely have lots of ‘coral’ which I vaguely remember is red algae calcareous stuff. I know its unusual, even if my memory is a little hazy.
Simon, this is great advice and I believe you made me change my plans significantly. Now I really want to go to Connemara. I knew it already that Connemara is interesting, possibly because of your post about the Connemara map which I’ve read before. Do you know any field excursion guides (pdf-files) about Connemara, Donegal, Mayo? I could of course just go and see what I can find there but I know from previous experiences that it is not the best approach. I have some sand samples with white algae (maerl) from Ireland. I have written a post about it: https://www.sandatlas.org/2011/11/maerl-from-ireland/ It would be good to see it with my own eyes.
Siim,
I’m sure you’d be best with specific locations in mind – best use of your time.
I don’t know of any guides I’m afraid, might be worth looking more here: http://www.gsi.ie/gsishop/
This might be useful, it describes locations: the-connemara-field-trip
Alan Pitts is on twitter @alandpitts and seems a helpful chap. He might have some location information related to what his undergraduates are doing.
I was involved in a fair number of undergraduate trips to Connemara and S. Mayo. Here’s what I remember of specific places. All have parking and rocks near the road.
Alcock and Brown memorial – south of Clifden. High grade metasediments.
Mannin Bay (where road meets coast a little bit to south).
These are all mentioned in the link above. You could do a loop round the coast via roundstone and visit Dogs Bay for forams.
The link above talks about Lissoughter hill, which is good but rather a walk.
A bit north of Clifden is Omey Beach, where you get granite and exposures of metasediments. Alan Pitts has a post about this area.
Other areas a little further north – the Dawros peninsula (go to Letterfrack and turn North). There are lots of gabbro and high grade rocks here. Outcrops are very good and near the car.
Currywongaun Hill. You should be able to park on the road and hop over the fence. The hill itself is not too big but 90% exposure, all glacially scoured. This is the stuff I talk about in my ‘sexy’ post.
Further North of here you get into the Silurian sediments. There is a place on the coast where you can see that the unconformity is an exhumed fault surface (that’s the story, anyway). This is less easy to get to. There is a thrust fault at Rosroe. It is a great big notch in the hillside so easy to find. Good exposures of Silurian sediments around here.
In Mayo I can’t remember specific locations I’m afraid. For Connemara I could attempt to be more precise if I got my maps out. If you are able to get hold of the Connemara geological map and some topo maps you could easily work it out yourself though. I’ve mentioned places that will be on the map.
One of the nice things about Connemara is the amount of outcrop. Most roads are quiet and have lots of verges to park a car on.
I know other universities run trips here and visit other places – there’s lots of good stuff to see.
I look forward to seeing your photos!
Simon beat me to it–if you’re a real sand collector you MUST go to Dog’s Bay, Connemara. I’ve never been there, but if I ever did go to Ireland, it would be the first place I’d visit. Apparently the entire beach is composed almost entirely of forams! My old micropalaeontology professor (an Irishman) had a sample of the sand and I still remember being amazed by it. I did some quick googling and the beach at Dog’s Bay (called “Gurteen” or “Gorteen” Beach) is at 53.378007, -9.957831. Here’s an article that talks about the Dog’s Bay forams: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artaug98/rwforam.html
Have fun!
Oh, and BTW: GO TEAM ESTONIA!
Cheers!
Howard, I am not sure I am a real sand collector (don’t know what it means) but I will do my best to be there. A real geologist shouldn’t miss Connemara anyway. Thanks for the coordinates. By the way, I do have a sand sample from Dog’s Bay already in my sand collection.
My sister lives in Dublin and i’ve been there at least once in year for the last six. Unfortunately i’ve had little chance to do real geology when visiting her. Just one time i’ve managed to get to the country’s west shore. We spent two days in Galway and that was enough for me to notice that there were lots of interesting things to see, mainly Connemara (we rode around in our car stopping here and there) and the famous cliffs of Moher, were we stood for half a day, walked along the cliffs and pay a visit to the visitor’s centre. I think they are triying to turn the place into a geopark, if it is not already one. So I strongly recommend you not to miss this area, though it possibly will imply a certain amount of planification, mainly because of the distance and the roads, that won’t allow you a one day tour from Dublin.
I don’t want to finish without telling you how much impressed I am by your ability to write so often and so good stuff in your wonderful geoblog. Me myself keep my own geoblog, and it takes a lot of effort just to post once in a week. Congratulations!
Thanks, Óscar. It is lots of work indeed but fortunately it gets easier with practice. Connemara is firmly in my plans.