Unique Nature and Wildlife of Ireland
Ireland is a beautiful place with lots of wild animals, many of which you won’t find here (and likewise, Ireland has no snakes – the common lizard is Ireland’s only reptile). Places to note include:
- The Cliffs of Moher stretch along County Clare’s western edge, battered by the sea and wind, and home to thousands of nesting seabirds, from puffins and kittiwakes to razorbills and guillemots. On a clear day, you can see the Aran Islands and Galway Bay.
- Killarney National Park has over 25,000 acres of woodlands, lakes, rivers and mountains. It’s the only place in the country where native red deer have survived since the last Ice Age. The landscape is alive with ferns, mosses, and wildflowers.
- The Burren stretches across northern Clare and southern Galway, one of Ireland’s most beautiful places: cracked limestone that bursts with wildflowers in summer (orchids and gentians).
- Connemara (County Galway) has mountains and rivers, and a wild coast with rocky islands, here you’ll find Twelve Bens mountains and wild ponies, along with rich birdline (golden plovers, merlins and even peregrine falcons).
- The Wicklow Mountains (just south of Dublin) have rolling moors and thick forests amid rain and morning mist, shaped by Ice Age glaciers, that left behind deep lakes. Lough Tay has dark water and white sand, and is known as ‘the Guinness lake!
Wildlife on the Emerald Isle
- With a beak as bright as a circus clown’s nose, puffins bring a splash of colour to Ireland’s cliffs. These seabirds (only found mostly in Northumberland in England) thrive here, only spending a few months on land to breed. In England, there has been a recent ban on sandeel fishing to protect dwindling numbers of both puffins and kittiwakes.
- Red squirrels in England are still endangered, but this country has got things right by rewilding pine martens (natural predators of greys) to keep nature in balance, without culls or laws banning wildlife rescues to help grey squirrels, as happens in England.
- Ireland has the same controversy with badgers, with many culled, despite solutions already known like stopping cattle-to-cattle transmission). In Northern Ireland, a Bill for badger culls got thrown out.
- Corncrakes are Irish birds with haunting raspy calls, related to coots and moorhens. They are almost extinct in England, with most numbers only found in Scotland.
One resident who adores the natural world is Paul Kingsnorth (who Aris Roussinos called ‘England’s greatest living writer’). His book Real England looks at how capitalism has eroded what we hold dear. He has since moved to Ireland, where he writes about wild saints!
