The longest river in Ireland. Geography of Ireland: relief, water resources, climate, flora and fauna
Reservoirs play an important role in the life of the country - they support the development of navigation, are used to generate hydroelectric power, and are a source of many natural resources.
In Ireland, rivers and lakes form a large network, sometimes interspersed with swamps.
Rivers do not freeze even in cold periods.
Rivers of Ireland
The Shannon is the first longest river in Ireland, with a length of 368 kilometers. It extends from the western part of the country to the southeast. The basin area is more than 15 thousand km², and the water flow is 200 m³ / s.
Shannon originates in the Kilkaf mountains, the height at the hill is small, and the source is located at a height of 76 meters. Such a convenient location allows you to clearly trace the beginning of the river along navigation charts. Shannon ends in the city-county of Limerick. The reservoir has many tributaries, the main ones are the Sak and Brosna rivers.
Barrow is the second longest in Ireland with a length of 192 kilometers. The river originates in the county of Leish in the south-east of Ireland, and the Celtic Sea is the mouth. Through the Grand Canal, Barrow is connected to the city of Efi, which is located in County Kildare.
This river is included in the so-called brotherhood of the rivers of Ireland called “Three Sisters”, besides it there are also the rivers Nore and Shure. “Three sisters” have such a name because of the graphic location - these rivers are not far from each other and all have a common mouth - the Celtic Sea.
Blackwater is a major river in Ireland, with a length of 168 kilometers and a total basin of 3108 km². The highest point above sea level is 229 meters. This river begins in the mountains of McGillicuddys Reeks in County Kerry in the southwest of the country and passes through several counties (Cork, Waterford), falling into the Celtic Sea.
The reservoir has seven tributaries, the largest of them are Allow, Obeg, Dalua and Bride. Also on the territory of the river there are settlements, the following are located on the banks settlements: Mallow, Fermoy, Lismore, Yol, Rathmore.
Lakes of Ireland
Lough Derg is one of the largest lakes in Ireland. Its coastline is 179 kilometers and the total area is 129 km². The average depth is 7.6 meters, and the largest recorded is 24 meters.
Through Loch Derg pass largest river Shanon, flowing from the northern part and flowing from the south, so the lake has an elongated oblong shape. The lake is bordered by three counties: Galway, Clare and North Tipperary. On his coastline there are several settlements, for example, Ballina, Portamna, Mountshannon. On the lake is amazing island Holly Island, whose indigenous people included in world heritage Ireland.
Lough Corrib is the second largest lake in Ireland with a total area of 176 km². The average depth of the lake is 5 meters, and the largest is 10 meters.
Lough Corrib has a tributary in the form of the Corrib River, which originates directly from the lake, and then flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Also in this natural reservoir there are more than 300 islands.
Loch Erne - double fresh lake in Northern Ireland. The total area of the natural reservoir is 123 km². The highest point of the lake is located at around 46 meters above sea level. The average depth reaches 3 meters, and the maximum recorded is 69 meters. Lough Erne is a navigable lake. There is a tributary - the River Erne, which flows to Donegal Bay.
According to some estimates, this reservoir has about 150 islands, according to others - at least 360. Notable places here are considered Devenish Island, where it is located ancient tower XII century and the island of Boa, where ancient stone idols are kept, left over from the indigenous population.
Loch Carra is a limestone lake with an area of 16 km². Its length, relative to other lakes in Ireland, is small - the length is 10 kilometers, and the width reaches 1.6 kilometers. The average depth of the lake is 1.8 meters, the maximum is 18 meters.
Loch Carra is located in County Mayo, which is in the western county of Ireland. The lake is considered part of the Moore estate. There are more than 70 islands on the territory of the reservoir.
Climate of Ireland- temperate marine. Near the western coast of the island there is a warm North Atlantic current, which, together with southwestern winds from Atlantic Ocean brings warm and humid air masses. The weather is unpredictable - the downpour can be repeatedly replaced by the sun several times a day. The rains are not heavy, but frequent. On average, up to 1200 mm of precipitation falls per year. Most precipitation in the west is up to 1600 mm (maximum value), in the central part it is only about 100 mm.
The average temperature in winter is from +4 C to +7 C, in summer: from +14 C to +17 C.
Relief of Ireland.
More than half of the territory of Ireland, in the center and in the north, is occupied by the Central Lowland (height 40-100 m) with hills and ridges towering above it, composed mainly of sandstone and limestone, covered by moraine deposits. In limestone - funnels, depressions, caves, underground rivers and lakes. In the outlying regions there are deeply dissected ranges of low and middle mountains with ancient leveling surfaces. In the south-west - the highest mountains in Ireland, the Kerry Mountains (Carrantwill, 1041 m).
The shores of Ireland (especially in the north, south and west) are rocky, heavily dissected by bays, the largest of which are Galway, Shannon, Dingle and Donegal in the west, Loch Foyle in the north. There are many rocky islands off the coast of Ireland.
Rivers and lakes of Ireland.
Ireland has a dense river network. The rivers are full-flowing all year round, do not freeze, and are navigable. The largest is the Shannon River. The lakes are predominantly of tectonic-glacial or karst origin (on the Central Lowland). Most large lakes- Loch Corrib, Loch Mask, Loch Ree.
Vegetable world
The main surface of the territory of Ireland is occupied by meadows, on which both northern, alpine plants grow, as well as species characteristic of southern Europe. Forests occupy 10 percent. According to the classification of the World Fund wildlife Ireland is divided into two ecoregions: Celtic broadleaf forests and North Atlantic mixed forests.
Animal world.
The fauna of Ireland is quite poor and if you want to see rare animals, then in this case you should visit the reserve. We especially visit the Killarney Nature Reserve, where animals such as red deer, wood mice, pine martens, red squirrels, badgers and foxes live. Also here you can meet 141 species of birds (there are 380 species in total in Ireland), such as the white-fronted goose, common falcon, blackbird, nightjar, chickweed and other types of water, forest, mountain and heather birds. Fish include brown trout and arctic char. There is also a very rare Irish lake feint here. In the seas surrounding Ireland, there are herring, mackerel, cod, flounder, sardines.
Internet version.
The island of Ireland is located at the opposite end of Europe relative to Russia, in the European west. Ireland is the twentieth largest island in the world and the third largest in Europe (after Great Britain and Iceland), it is slightly larger Japanese island Hokkaido or our Sakhalin, however, is not as elongated as Sakhalin.
Once Ireland was not an island at all, but formed a common whole with Great Britain and the continent, but separated from them by a sea strait (now it is the Irish Sea) 14 thousand years ago. The first people came to Ireland by boat from Great Britain about 4,000 years after that. The Celts, the direct ancestors of the modern Irish, appeared here later, in the Middle Ages the Normans invaded the island, and then the British established their power, who ruled Ireland until the beginning of the 20th century. And now there are two different states here - the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the Kingdom of Great Britain and occupies a sixth of the island's territory in the northeast.
The Irish, however, have something to brag to the people neighboring island. So, the Irish Shannon River is the longest (360 km) river in all British Isles, longer than the English Thames, and any Irishman remembers this fact very well from school. At the same time, Shannon turns out to be even shorter than our Moscow River, but do not forget that in Ireland the sea is everywhere nearby, from anywhere on the island it is no more than a hundred kilometers away, and Shannon still managed to accommodate in this limited area. And due to the humid climate, the Irish rivers are very full-flowing, often have a powerful current and can form large estuaries (estuaries) when they flow into the sea. A good example is the same Shannon, whose estuary stretches for almost 100 kilometers in length, and 14 kilometers in width (at the point of confluence with the Atlantic). Here the Moscow River was not even close.
Another detail that is not familiar to a resident of Russia is that the water level in the lower reaches of Irish rivers is often highly dependent on the sea tide. In the city of Limerick, located at the head of the Shannon Estuary, the difference in water levels in the river during the day can be more than 5 meters. Therefore, if you come to some coastal Irish city and the local river seems shallow to you - stones stick out from the bottom and mud along the coast - wait a few hours, and the river will certainly fill up. Moreover, it is not at all necessary to go to the Atlantic coast - this phenomenon can be observed right in the center of Dublin, where the difference in water levels in the Liffey River at high and low tide, depending on the phase of the moon, reaches 3.5 meters.
The same variability is typical for the Irish climate, although not with a 100% guarantee: during the rain and the Sun can change several times. And what we call “mushroom rain”, when the Sun is visible in the sky and it is raining at the same time, is a completely ordinary phenomenon for the Irish, and no special gifts of nature are expected from it. At the same time, temperatures throughout the year due to the proximity of the Atlantic, on the contrary, are very stable, the thermometer rarely goes beyond the range from 0 to +20 degrees Celsius. This is despite the fact that Ireland is located at the latitude of our middle zone: its northernmost point lies approximately on the parallel of Moscow, and the southern one - Voronezh. Snow happens here in winter, but it melts almost immediately, and +25 in summer is already hot. Although it really feels hot because of the humidity, and once every couple of days it will rain and drizzle. And the biggest “drought” in the history of meteorological observations in Ireland was recorded in the same Limerick in the spring of 1938: 37 days without rain.
There are many lakes in Ireland. As in the case of rivers, the most big lake The British Isles are also located on the territory of Ireland, but this time the North is Lough Neagh. In Irish, as well as in its sister Scots, the word “loch” means “lake”, and even stories similar to the legend of the Scottish monster Nessie from Loch Ness exist in Ireland.
In general, the importance of water in all its manifestations in Irish life is eloquently evidenced by the fact that the names of many Irish cities carry the “water” roots of Irish and even Old Norse (the Vikings were also once frequent guests here) languages: Cork - “ swamp”, Galway - “rocky river”, Waterford - “sheep fjord” (and not at all the English “ford”, as you might think, although, whatever one may say, it is water). And the name of the capital - Dublin - means nothing more than "black pond".
However, Irish nature is not limited to water alone, there is also enough earth here: Irish rivers, lakes and swamps are surrounded by beautiful hills and mountains. There are few flat plains in Ireland, most of the terrain is hilly to one degree or another, and the typical Irish landscape is sheep grazing on green hills at any time of the year.
Not all hills in Ireland are similar to each other, there are also very famous ones that stand out from the crowd, for example, the Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary. It is called a rock, but in fact it is a rather steep hill, standing in the middle of a more or less flat place, on which a whole complex of historical defensive and church buildings is located. It is believed that Saint Patrick, the educator of Ireland, baptized the king of the local kingdom of Munster in the 5th century here, and at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries, the most famous and powerful Irish king of all time, Brian Boru, ruled from here.
Also very historically significant and popular is the hill of Tara in County Meath, on which the residence of the High Kings of Ireland was located.
There are also real mountains in Ireland, although not as high as on the continent (the highest is Mount Carrantuil in County Kerry, 1041 m), but in some places they look quite severe.
Most beautiful mountains located in the western part of the country near Atlantic coast. For example, Mount Errigol in County Donegal (751 m), which locals jokingly called extinct volcano, although it actually looks like the Japanese Fujiyama.
In County Sligo there is a very beautiful table mountain (that is, long and with a flat top) Ben Bulben (526 m). The famous Irish poet William Yeats was very fond of this mountain, and he was buried in its vicinity.
In the same Sligo there is another famous mountain- Knocknari (327 m), which contains several very ancient burials, including the stone mound of the semi-mythical Queen Medb, who lived in the 1st century BC.
And in the neighboring County of Mayo is the holy mountain of Ireland - Cro Patrick (764 m). It is believed that Saint Patrick fasted for forty days and nights on this mountain. This mountain is a very popular climbing point in Ireland among both pilgrims and ordinary tourists.
Combining the mountain and the sea, we get a cliff. Therefore, there must be many cliffs in Ireland, and very picturesque ones at that. And they are, the most famous of which are the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, breaking vertically down into the waves of the Atlantic from a height of two hundred meters, also very famous among tourists.
Ireland is an island itself, but just as planets have satellites, there are many interesting little islands off the coast of Ireland, especially on the Atlantic side. Perhaps the most famous of them are the Aran Islands, of which there are three: Inishmore, Inishman and Inisheer. From these names, it is logical to assume that in Irish the word for “island” will be “inish”, and it is. And, by the way, these same Aranian “iniches” are one of the few places where local residents still speak the same Celtic Irish language in everyday life, which has nothing to do with English.
No less interesting, although not so well known, are the Blasket Islands, or rather, the main one is Big Blasket Island. This island is located in the waters of the Atlantic off Dunmore Head - the extreme western point of Ireland in County Kerry in the very south-west of the island. It once had a self-governing community, quite isolated from outside world And central government, like our coast-dwellers; many books have been written about them and by themselves in Ireland. But in the 1940s, all the Blaskets were resettled on the Irish “mainland”. Now, however, Big Blasket can be reached by ferry during the summer.
And the highest cliffs in Ireland and again in all the British Isles (688 meters in highest point) are located on another island - Achill in County Mayo. Achill is also the largest of Ireland's satellite islands.
Everything in Ireland is good, but one thing is bad - there are islands around it and it is an island itself, so there is no way to get there by train. But on the other hand, you can take the train to the airport, and from there to Ireland - fly away! And in Ireland itself Railway yes, you can drive along it or along the usual road, and observe the Shannon River, Mount Ben Balben, fluffy sheep on the green hills and other beauties of the Emerald Isle.
1. Castle of King John (John the Landless) on the Shannon River. Limerick.
2. Cliffs of Moher, County Clare.
3. Landscape, County Clare.
4. Landscape (Hoare Abbey), County Tipperary.
5. Landscape (Lake Nakon), County Donegal.
6. Landscape (Church of the Sacred Heart), County Donegal.
They form a dense network, periodically interspersed with lakes and swamps. All of them are full-flowing and never covered with ice.
Shannon River
The Shannon holds the title of Ireland's longest river. The length of the current is 368 kilometers. The channel is a natural boundary separating the province of Connaught (Western Ireland) from the eastern and southern parts.
The source of the Shannon is in County Cavan (Lake Shannon Pot). Initially, the riverbed follows a southerly direction, but at the end of the path it turns west and flows into the waters of the Atlantic, forming an estuary 113 kilometers long. On its way, the river passes eleven of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Along the way, forming lakes - Loch Ree, Loch Derg and Loch Allen. The height at which the source of the river is located is not high - only 17 meters above sea level. That is why the river is suitable for navigation. It has several locks that maintain the required water level.
Shannon will be of interest to those who like to sit with a fishing rod. Salmon and pike are found here.
River Barrow
The river passes through the territory of Ireland and is the second longest - the total length of Barrow is 192 kilometers. The source of the river is the Slieve Bloom Mountains (Lyish county lands). The main direction of the current is south. Barrow transits through Waterfod, then and to connect with the waters of the Celtic Sea.
Shur River
Another short river in the country - the total length of the channel is only 184 kilometers. The source of the river is located on the mountain slope of Devil's Beat (the lands of the county of North Tipperary). From here it rushes briskly in a southerly direction to the border of the county. Here Shur decides to turn east to join up with "friends" Barow and Nor. And in this composition, they continue their path to the flesh to the place where it flows into the waters of the Celtic Lake.
The rivers Shur, Barrow and Nur are locally called the "Three Sisters". Before flowing, they form an estuary.
Blackwater River
The total length of the current is 168 kilometers. Already traditionally the source is in the mountains, but now it is McGillicuddis Reeks (the lands of County Kerry). Initially, Blackwater makes its way eastward, passing Waterford and. After that, the river makes a sharp turn and sets off on a journey to the waters of the Celtic Sea (southern direction), flowing into it near the port of Yugal. The waters of the river were chosen as a habitat and spawning place for fish of the salmon family.
Slaney River
The source of the river is located in the southeastern part of the country on Mount Lugnaquilla (the lands of County Wicklow). Slaney passes through three counties - Wicklow, Carlow and - and ends its short journey, mixing with the waters of the Irish Sea. Despite its small length, thirty-two road bridges and one railway bridge cross the river.