Читать книгу The Wild Atlantic Way and Western Ireland. 6 cycle tours along Ireland's west coast онлайн

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The bays and peninsulas of Kerry and Cork were shaped into their east–west alignment by movements some 270 million years ago (known as Armorican folding), while in the north and west the mountains follow the northwest–southeast alignment of the far earlier Caledonian stage of mountain building, some 500 million years ago.

Fine glaciated features at the Poisoned Glen, Dunlewey (Route 1, Stage 6)

During the most recent ice age much of what is now Ireland was covered by ice, and the landscape retains some of the finest glacial scenery in Europe. Doo Lough Glen in County Mayo and the Poisoned Glen in County Donegal are glacial valleys of the highest order. Two glacial landforms, the esker and the drumlin, take their English names from Irish words. Drumlins are low, whale-backed hills deposited under the ice, while eskers are long sinuous ridges believed to result from water flowing under the ice.

Wildlife and flowers

The development boom of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy increased the pressures on Ireland’s wild places, but as a cycle trip along the Wild Atlantic Way will reveal, Ireland remains predominantly rural.