Oct 252020
Jul 202015
I went to the South Connemara Gaeltacht last week, for the annual MacDara’s Island pilgrimage. We went further south, across a series of bridges, to the remote Mweenish Island, which has a spectacular example of machair habitat. Machair is a sandy grassland, found only on the exposed coasts of the western seaboard of Ireland and Scotland. It is formed when calcareous sand is blown inland and depends on low-input traditional farming practices to maintain its biodiversity.
The machair on Mweenish island is home to a wonderful array of wild flowers, the most spectacular of which is the pyramidal orchid, which is dotted all over the dunes in large numbers.
Jun 042015
The orchid must be the most spectacular of Connemara’s wild flowers. These are an endangered species and are protected by law in Ireland, but they grow abundantly in Connemara. You can see them growing by the side of busy main roads, and dotted around the fields where horses and cows seem to leave them untouched. Some of our neighbours have hundreds of them growing in their lawns, which they cannot cut until the flowering season ends. There are many varieties of wild orchid, but identifying them precisely is a job for a professional. I think this one may be a Marsh Orchid, but I am by no means certain.
