Abstract
Palaeoecological investigations, involving pollen analysis, dendrochronology, and radiocarbon dating of bog-pine, provide the basis for reconstruction of vegetation dynamics, landscape development, and human impact in two contrasting parts of lowland northern Connemara, western Ireland, namely Ballydoo and Derryeighter in the east, and Renvyle/Letterfrack/Cleggan at the Atlantic coast some 40 km to the west. The history of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is traced in detail. Standout features include the dominant role the tree played from the early Holocene onwards and especially at Ballydoo, its ability to grow on peat surfaces (so-called pine flush) over the course of several millennia during the mid-Holocene (centred on c. 5 ka), and its demise in a three-step fashion to become regionally extinct at c. 2.3 ka. The factors influencing these developments, including climate change, are discussed. Another natural phenomenon, namely the spread of blanket bog, is shown to be an on-going process since the early mid-Holocene, with accelerated spread taking place during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The course of human impact, as reflected in pollen records and in archaeological field monuments, including megaliths and prehistoric stone walls, is reconstructed in detail.
Highlights
Connemara, though administratively and geographically not officially defined, is widely regarded as that region in mid-western Ireland defined by (a) Galway Bay and extensive granite exposures, (b) a highly indented and often rocky coastline facing the Atlantic Ocean in the west, (c) uplands in the north consisting of sandstones and grits running east from Killary Harbour, and (d) carboniferous limestone lowlands that include Lough (L.) Mask and L
In addition to the 14 C dates, the following indicators of age were used for constructing the age/depth model for BDB I: Lateglacial/Holocene transition (11.65 ka; [57]); Juniperus in the early Holocene has expanded (11.5 ka); early Holocene Alnus rise (7.7 ka); elm decline (5.8 ka); and pine flush (4.95 ka), and an estimated age for the top of the pollen profile, i.e., c. 1700 CE (12 cm depth; secondary rise of Pinus—indicative of afforestation; it has not registered in the profile)
Pollen profiles, including three pollen profiles that span most of the Holocene, show the important role played by P. sylvestris in north-east and in north-western Connemara in the early and mid-Holocene
Summary
Though administratively and geographically not officially defined, is widely regarded as that region in mid-western Ireland defined by (a) Galway Bay and extensive granite exposures, (b) a highly indented and often rocky (igneous and metamorphic) coastline facing the Atlantic Ocean in the west, (c) uplands in the north consisting of sandstones and grits (mainly Devonian) running east from Killary Harbour (co-incident with the Galway/Mayo county boundary), and (d) carboniferous limestone lowlands that include Lough (L.) Mask and L. Corrib forming the eastern boundary (Figure 1). Within this region of ~1800 km , there is considerable diversity of landscape and habitat, including the Twelve Bens and Maumturk mountains with peaks close to or exceeding 700 m asl and formed mainly of erosion-resistant pre-Cambrian (Dalradian) quartzite [1,2]. The lowlands include large expanses of treeless (prior to recent afforestation) blanket bog, including. The extensive blanket bogs are punctuated by farmed land, mainly located on fertile soils derived from calcareous schists such as the Lakes Marble Formation (Dalradian) or from drumlins and other glacial deposits of last glacial age (referred to as Midlandian/Weichselian in Irish/European contexts). The scarcity of woodland cover—disregarding afforestation, which dates mainly
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