The Carrownagappul Bog (Irish: Portach Ceathrú na gCapall) Special Area of Conservation or SAC is a Natura 2000 site in County Galway, close to the town of Mountbellew in County Galway, Ireland. The site qualifies for Special Area of Conservation status under three criteria: the presence of active raised bog, of degraded raised bogs still capable of natural regeneration, and of depressions on peat substrates of the Rhynchosporion.
Location The Carrownagappul Bog SAC is located approximately 3 km north of the town of Mountbellew in east County Galway, in the townlands of Ballynalahy, Carrownagannive, Carrownagappul, Cloonconore, Gunnode, Springlawn and Tully. Schedule 1 of the Statutory Instrument for this site (S.I. No. 140/2017) identifies it as encompassing an area of 485.66 hectares. A detailed map of the SAC area is included in the National Parks and Wildlife Service Conservation Objectives for the site. A satellite map (and illustrative video) of the bog is also available from the Carrownagappul project website, Galway's Living Bog. The archival records for Carrownagappul on the Logainm.ie website (the Placenames Database of Ireland, which records the placenames data, records and research of the State) note that the anglicised name ‘Carrownagappul’ or in the original Irish language, Ceathrú na gCapall, corresponds to “the quarter of the horses”. No further explanation is given there to link the area to horses. The writer and historian Patrick Weston Joyce also referred to Carrownagappul as “Ceathramha-na-gcapall, quarter-land of the cappuls or horses”. The ‘’ceathrú’’ or ‘quarter’ is a division of land, while ‘capall’ is an Irish word for horse.
Special Area of Conservation qualification The Carrownagappul Bog site was proposed as a Natura 2000 site (‘Site of Community Importance’ or SCI) in 1998 under the Habitats Directive. Statutory Instrument No. 140 of 2017, establishing the site as an SAC (Site code: 001242), was passed in 2017. The ecological features for which this site received a Special Area of Conservation designation are: Active raised bogs (Annex I priority feature) [Natura 2000 code 7110] Degraded raised bogs still capable of natural regeneration [Natura 2000 code 7120] Depressions on peat substrates of the Rhynchosporion habitat [Natura 2000 code 7150] The Biodiversity Information System for Europe website notes that Carrownagappul Bog comprises one of the largest extant areas of uncut high bog surface in East Galway, with a relatively large area of active raised bog. The Carrownagappul Bog site is also a proposed National Heritage Area site or pNHA. Close to the Carrownagappul Bog SAC are the Curraghlehanagh Bog and Shankill West Bog SAC sites, which are also pNHA sites, Derrinlough (Cloonkeenleananode) Bog SAC, which is also a Natural Heritage Area (or NHA), the Suck River Callows (a Special Protection Area and NHA), and Summerville Lough, a pNHA. The Galway County Geological Site Report of 2019 notes that Carrownagappul bog is ranked as a County Geological Site due to the geological and hydrogeological process of peat growth, and that it should be designated as a Geological NHA. The bedrock at the site is primarily Lower Carboniferous limestone. The peat at the site was laid down approximately 7,000-10,000 years ago, and is of the Quaternary period, having formed in marshy conditions since deglaciation.
Site features According to the statutory instrument for the site, the area of land designated as Carrownagappul Bog Special Area of Conservation is 485.66 ha in size. From the NPWS Conservation Objectives document of 2015 and the survey document of 2012, it consists of 28.1 hectares of active raised bog, and 52.1 hectares of degraded raised bog within 323.5 hectares of high bog. Rhynchosporion vegetation occurs in the active bog site. A comprehensive survey of the site was carried out in October 2012. In the report of this survey, the site is described as a Western Raised Bog and as a Ridge Basin Bog. This type of bog is intermediate between the domed mires of basins and the blanket bogs of western Ireland. The 2012 survey described the bog as having:
"an approximately triangular shape and is somewhat fragmented in places by tracks that cross the high bog. The bog has been extensively cutaway around much of the margin and there are face banks of varying height around the site. An extensive drainage network covers much of the high bog."
The National Parks and Wildlife Service site synopsis for this site, published in 2013, notes that numerous bog roads, tracks and drains extend into the centre of this bog. The Carrownagappul Bog SAC includes three protected types of ecosystem: active raised bog, degraded raised bogs still capable of natural regeneration, and depressions on peat substrates of the Rhynchosporion habitat.
Active raised bog The Carrownagappul Bog SAC includes a relatively large area of active raised bog, an Annex I priority habitat requiring protection under the European Union Habitats Directive. Annex 1 habitats are those requiring designation as Special Areas of Conservation, and priority habitats are those which are considered in danger of disappearing in the European Union. In this ecotype, there is a high, wet, peat-forming bog with a high percentage cover of Sphagnum spp., and where some or all of these features are present: hummocks, pools, wet flats, Sphagnum lawns, flushes and/or soaks. Active raised bog as a habitat is characterised by the presence of an acrotelm - the living, actively peat-forming upper layer, the surface of which is composed mainly of living bog mosses (Sphagnum spp.). The overall status of this type of habitat in Ireland is currently regarded as ‘Bad’. The Carrownagappul Bog SAC includes 28.1 hectares of active raised bog. Of this active raised bog, only 4.12 hectares is considered of high quality and this included 2.74 hectares of central ecotope and 1.38 hectares of active flushes. It is described as notably wet, and includes areas of quaking bog. The topography of the area includes large and interconnecting pools, low hummocks, high hummocks, hollows and lawns. The flora to be found here includes the aquatic mosses Sphagnum cuspidatum and Sphagnum auriculatum, as well as bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata), common cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium), great sundew (Drosera anglica) and white beak-sedge (Rhynchospora alba). Rhynchosporion vegetation occurs here in the wet flats and numerous pools. Total Sphagnum cover in the central ecotope is approximately 76-90% and in the active flushes is 34-50%. The bog mosses Sphagnum cuspidatum, Sphagnum papillosum, Sphagnum magellanicum, Sphagnum capillifolium, Sphagnum austinii and Sphagnum fuscum are all found here.
Degraded raised bogs still capable of natural regeneration Degraded raised bog are differentiated from active raised bogs by the complete absence (or patchy thin cover) of an acrotelm (the living, actively peat-forming upper layer of the bog). This typically occurs in areas of high bog where the bog hydrology has been negatively impacted by peat cutting, drainage, or other land use activities, but which ay be restored. To qualify as a degraded raised bog, there must be a reasonable expectation that these areas are capable of natural regeneration to active bog within 30 years with remediation of their hydrology. Carrownagappul Bog SAC includes a large area of uncut high bog. Degraded raised bog covers 295.41ha or 91.32% of the high bog area. The degraded areas of the bog are drier than those of the active bog. This area is characteristically poor in species and is dominated by bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum), carnation sedge (Carex panicea) and heather (Calluna vulgaris). Other plants occurring here include hare's-tail cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum), deergrass and cross-leaved heath (Erica tetralix). There is a much lower proportion of Sphagnum moss cover in the degraded raised bog: the wettest of the sub-marginal community complexes had approximately 30-40% cover, while some other areas had approximately 26-33% Sphagnum cover. The species of Sphagnum occurring here tended to be primarily Sphagnum capillifolium which can tolerate drier conditions. Other species occurring here include the hypnoid moss Hypnum cupressiforme and the lichen Cladonia portentosa. The topography of this habitat includes some good quality pools (in the range of 11-25% cover) and tear pools (approximately 5% cover).
Depressions on peat substrates of the Rhynchosporion The habitat type “Depressions on peat substrates of the Rhynchosporion” consists of “Highly constant pioneer communities of humid exposed peat or, sometimes, sand, with Rhynchospora alba, Rhynchospora fusca, Drosera intermedia, Drosera rotundifolia, and Lycopodiella inundata, forming on stripped areas of blanket bogs or raised bogs, but also on naturally seep- or frost-eroded areas of wet heaths and bogs, in flushes and in the fluctuation zone of oligotrophic pools with sandy, slightly peaty substratum. These communities are similar, and closely related, to those of shallow bog hollows (Pal. 51.122) and of transition mires (Pal. 54.57).”
This habitat is found in both active and degraded raised bog at Carrownagappul. These are considered to be best developed and most stable in the wettest areas of active raised bog. It occurs most frequently in one of the Sub-Central Ecotope Complexes It is to be found in wet depressions, pool edges and erosion channels. The flora includes white beak-sedge (Rhynchospora alba), brown beak-sedge (Rhynchospora fusca), and at least some of the following associated species: bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum), carnation sedge (Carex panicea), deergrass (Trichophorum cespitosum) and species of sundews (Drosera spp.).
Lagg zone One feature of raised bogs is a transition zone or lagg, between the peat and adjoining mineral soils, where water from the surrounding soils collects and mingles with the water from the bog itself. Intact lagg areas are uncommon now, due to peat cutting, and are of considerable interest from a conservation aspect. The lagg zone of Carrownagappul Bog (approximately 0.5 hectares) is nearly intact and has been surveyed. It included five vegetative communities, ranging from ombrotrophic bog (community A) at the high bog margin through heathy Molinia grassland (communities B and C) to wet fen in the lagg proper (communities D and E).
The survey of the site indicated that, aside from the Annex I habitats already recorded at Carrownagappul Bog, there appear to be two further Annex I habitats in the lagg area of the bog: alkaline fen and transition mire. The Annex II butterfly species Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia) was also found here. The survey notes that the boundary of this SAC does not include all of this high conservation value lagg zone. Research on cutover bogs in Ireland also showed other Annex I habitats may be present at Carrownagappul Bog. A candidate site for the Annex I habitat 'Molinia meadows' (Natura code 6410) was identified at the semi-intact lagg site of the bog, including the species Cirsium dissectum, Carex pulicaris, Carex echinata, Carex viridula, Juncus conglomeratus, Luzula multiflora, Potentilla erecta and Succisa pratensis.
Patch's Garden Underneath the bog, there are several low relief eskers. A small raised mineral/till island surrounded by deep peat, the site of a smallholding in the late 1800s, is an unusual feature of this site. This area was farmed by a local man named Patch Cronin. This feature was retained and integrated into the restoration work on the bog. Several looped walks through the bog originate from this site.
Bird life