TURLOUGHS OVER i()ha vegetation Survey & Evaluation A Report for the National Parks & Wildlife Service Office of Public Works Roger Goodwillie 1992 RECEI\iFC J 26 APR1994 AWf- CONTENTS 1. Origin and purpose of survey 1 1 2. Methods 2 I 2.1 Vegetation 8 I 3. Turlough Types 10 3.1 Physiography 10 1 3.2 Vegetation 12 4. Vegetation Types 15 4.1 Notes on plant species 34 1 I 5. Classification and Evaluation 41 5.1 Catchment Area 42 1 5.2 Scoring 42 5.3 Conservation Value 43 6. Site Descriptions 46 1. Turloughmore (Sligo) 46 2. Doocastle 49 3. Moylough 52 4. Killaturly Lough 55 5. Balla (Pollaghard) 56 6. Slishmeen 59 7. Ballyglass 62 8. Corbally 64 9. Mullygollan 66 10. Castleplunket 68 11. Brierfield 71 12. Carrowreagh 74 13. Rathnalulleagh 77 14. Newtown (Roscommon) 80 15. Attishane (Tur Lough) 81 16. Coolcam 84 17. Croaghill 87 18. Ballinastack 90 19. Boyounagh 92 20. Glenamaddy 94 21. Kilkerrin 97 22. Levally Lough 100 23. Carrowkeel (Pollelamagur Lough) 103 24. Scardaun 106 25. Kilglassan 108 26. Caheravoostia 111 27. Greaghans 114 28. Skealoughan 117 29. Ardkill 119 30. Rathbaun 122 31. Shrule II (Lough Nakill) 123 32. Turlough O'Gall 127 33. Belclare 130 34. Turlough Monaghan 133 35. Fearagha 135 36. Fortwilliam 138 37. Ballinturly 140 38. Lisduff 144 38A Four Roads (Cloonloughlin) 147 39. Lough Croan 148 40. Feacle 152 41. Kiltullagh 153 42. Rahasane 156 43. Caranavoodaun 160 44. Ballinderreen 163 45. Kiltiernan 166 46. Peterswell (Blackrock) 169 47. Caherglassaun 172 48. Garryland 175 49. Newtown/Coole 177 50. Lough Mannagh 182 51. Termon Lough 185 52. Turloughnagullaun 188 53. Turloughmore (Clare) 191 54. Carran 193 55. Castle Lough 197 56. Lough Aleenaun 200 57. Knockaunroe 202 58. Lough Gash 206 59. Loughmore 208 60. Liskeenan 211 61. Loughans 214 7. Summary of Site Importance (Table 6) 216 8. References 217 9. Appendix 1. Characteristic species used to identify Vegetation Types 219 Appendix 2. Species presence in Vegetation Types 221 1 J 1. ORIGINS AND PURPOSE r. This report fulfills a contract with the Wildlife Service whose terms were to:- u 1) Describe, delimit, classify and evaluate all (undrained) turloughs over 10ha in area. 2) Produce a report on their status and value containingsite descriptions/evaluations in a format compatible with the CORINE database. The contract commenced in April and terminated in December 1990. -1 It was under the supervision of Mr Jim Ryan, WildlifeService, J Bray, who spent some time in the field in theearly part of the season and was of assistance throughout. The help of Nick Stewart, Tim Rich, Donal Synnott andCaitriona Douglas with certain plant identifications is acknowledged as is the ornithological and other information received from Donal Daly, Padraig Comerford, David Silk and John Wilson. J 1 2. METHODS The turloughs to be examined (Table 1 & Figure 1)during the survey were taken as the list of undrained examples inCoxon r (1986) with the addition of a site in Kilkenny (Loughans)which she classified as drained. Local knowledge is however that it floods regularly. Another undrained turlough (Four Roads) came to light after fieldwork was finished and it is included inthe list of sites (Tables 1 & 6) for completeness. Each of the turloughs was visited and the plant communities 1 occurring there were recorded, together with other features of physical and biological interest. One or a series of fieldcards (p 6-7) was completed for each site and mapping information r written onto a 1:10560 map. At the outset of each visit the topmost edge ofthe turlough was established insofar as this could be done. The evidence was generally taken from the vegetation (see below) but because the spring of 1990 had seen high floods there was quitefrequently a line of flood debris, at least on the windward shore.The 1 exceptional levels in the Gort and Coole Lough turloughs werenot used for mapping since these were way above 'normal' floodheight. The floods that had occurred in this basin earlier inthe year are 1 reckoned to be once in 70 year floods (Daly, pers.comm.). At practically all sites the edges were considerably further out than those shown on the 6" O.S. surveys (and followedby Coxon). 1 As a consequence the areas included in this report arelarger by 10-30% than those recorded previously. The justification for including such an area within the. site boundary is thatall of the 1 vegetation is subject to periodic inundation and may therefore contain special genotypes and unique plant communities. The areas of the turloughs are given in Table 1 which alsoincludes the 1 river systems in which the turloughs lie. An effort was made to record the waders nesting ineach area during the breeding season. Other items of faunal interest were 1 obtained from the literature and unpublished surveys but this aspect of the report should in no way be regardedas complete. The majority of wildfowl figures are from Sheppard (in prep.). 1 I 2 7 TABLE 1 SUMMARY OF TURLOUGHS: Hydrology Name County Grid Ref. Size (x) River Estim. y/x System Catchment (y) 1. Turloughmore Sligo G5413 25.7 Owenmore 40 1.6 2. Doocastle Mayo G5809 38.2 Owenmore 48 142.6 3. Moylough Sligo G5408 19.5 Moy 80 4.1 4. Killaturly L. Mayo M4198 34.0 Moy 562 16.5 5. Balla Mayo M2685 35.0 Manulla 723 20.7 7 (Moy) 6. Slishmeen Mayo M2279 19.6 Manulla/ 361 18.4 L. Carra 7. Ballyglass Mayo M2378 25.9 L. Carra 562 21.7 8. Corbally Roscommon M8480 9.2 Scramogue 803 87.3 (Shannon) 9. Mullygollan Roscommon M8079 31.8 Scramogue 963 (Shannon) 10. Castleplunket Roscommon M7877 60.0 Smaghraun 80 (Suck) J 11. Brierfield Roscommon M8177 52.9 Scramogue 642 (Shannon) 12. Carrowreagh Roscommon M7975 26.3 Smaghraun 161 6.1 (Suck) 13. RathnalulleaghRoscommon M7874 26.4 963 36.5 14. Newtown Roscommon M7873 12.4 482 38.9 15. Attishane Roscommon M5373 17.2 Dalgan 321 18.7 (Clare) 16. Coolcam Roscommon M5871 67.1 Island 963 14.4 /Galway (Suck) J 17. Croaghill Galway M6071 37.4 11 402 10.8 18. Ballinastack Galway M6565 24.9 Springfield 300 12.1 (Suck) 19. Boyounagh Galway M6063 21.2 Sinking 402 19.0 (Clare) ;7 20. Glenamaddy Galway M6461 177.5 Shiven 1365 7.7 (Suck) 21. Kilkerrin Galway M6356 16.6 11 241 14.5 22. Levally L. Galway M5354 48.5 Grange 562 11.6 (Clare) 23. Carrowkeel Mayo M3069 30.1 Robe 562 18.7 24. Scardaun Mayo M3469 18.3 402 22.0 7 25. Kilglassan Mayo M2864 49.9 1285 25.8 26. Caheravoostia Mayo M2665 23.8 1285 53.9 27. Greaghans Mayo M2963 36.5 241 6.6 7 28. Skealoughan Mayo M2563 28.0 L. Corrib/ 482 17.2 Cross R. 29. Ardkill Mayo M2763 16.0 Robe 40 2.5 30. Rathbaun Galway/ iM3561 66.9 Clare 1245 18.6 Mayo 3 Name County Grid Ref. (x) Estim. y/x' System Catchment (Y) 31. Shrule II Mayo 522 (L. Corrib) 32. Turlough O'GallGalway 33. Belclare Galway 34. Turlough M3346 26.8 L. Corrib 401 15.0 Monaghan 35. Fearagha Galway Corrib 36. Fortwilliam Longford Ree 37. Ballinturly Roscommon 38. Lisduff Roscommon 38A.Four Roads Roscommon 39. Lough Croan Roscommon (Shannon) 40. Feacle Roscommon It 41. Kiltullagh Galway 42. Rahasane Galway 43. CaranavoodaunGalway 44. Ballinderreen Galway Bay ' 45. Kiltiernan Galway Bay 46. Peterswell Galway (Gort) 47. Caherglassaun Galway ' 48. Garryland Galway 49. Newtown/ Galway (Goole) (280) (31795) 50. Lough Mannagh Galway 51. Termon Lough Galway 52. Turloughna- Bay gullaun 53. Turloughmore Clare 54. Carran Clare 55. Castle Lough Clare 56. Lough AleenaunClare 57. Knockaunroe Clare 58. Lough Gash Clare , Shannon 59. Loughmore Limerick 60. Liskeenan Tipperary Derg 241 61. Loughans Kilkenny (More) 562 4 U J ' owMOR 'rl v J 3CA2 A4 8 " 9scramugue lo:'-'A A '1,16 JL 15 17 !23 A24: 14 19A X18 27 "i 28A 3 A20 37 A',, 29 A,22; A21 RI BA 38At 31 2v A `t&39 B jc34133 sUc 35 Dunk 42 q 45 X46 X52i0fA4g 9G O R T-i --" 60 *4155 A51 56 A57 FERGUS); i r, ul i' 1 A61 X59 NO aE J Figure 1Distributionofturloughs examinedwithrelevent river catchments 5 TURLOUGH SURVEY Site Name Grid Ref. 1 Site complex County Recorder Altitude Area Physiography Soil Vegetation Rare spp. Birds seen Evaluation Flooding Drainage Vulnerability LandUse Ownership References 6 J f(IT'_ COVER GRID REF. 1 I NGIOSP. 1 2 3 4 5 BRYOPHYTES 569 Crat mono 576 Crap pal LiLITTER HT. OF VEG. 597 Cyno crist SOIL 607 Dactylls 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1915 Danthonia 1250 Medic lup J pal 627 Desch ones 1272 Menth aq 1708 Rosa can 673 Eleo aclc 1273 arv 1 2 3 4 5 1289 Menyanthes Rubus odes 1, ".hit mil 675 pat 1307 Molinla 1728 taut 9 liter 33 Elym rep 1319 Myna laxa 1734 Rum actosa 40 Agrost cap 697 Epil pal 1322 acorp 1741 congl 39 stol 698 pa rv 1330 Myrlo alt crisp 57 Alch fit 712 Equla arv 1331 epic 1740 obtus 60 xanth 717 pat 1348 Nast off 1753 sang 763 Aliama 740 Erlophang N haea Sell. rep 702 Alop gen 762 Euonymus 1361 Odontltea 1817 SamoIue 05 prat 813 Feet arun 1381 Ophiogl 1855 Sell... elac 109 Angelica 021 ovln 1454 Phal arun 1851 Sctrp lac J121 Anthox od at 823 prat 2247 Phleum pre set 135 Apium inun 824 rub L465 Phragmitee 1875 Sedum acre 130 nodi 833 Fillp ulm 1487 Plant lane 1888 Selaginal 224 Bald.