Galway and Clare Weekend, 31 May - 1 June 2003
This weekend was a joint meeting with the newly-formed Galway Naturalists' Field Club. Photographs from Joan and Wesley Semple:
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Examining the contents of Trevor Boyd's moth trap, set up overnight in Kinvarra, south-east Galway....
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.... the catch included this Elephant Hawk Moth
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Fermanagh Weekend, 15-18 August 2003
Photographs from Joan and Wesley Semple:
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Margaret Gallagher and her cottage at Mullylusty
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In Correl Glen
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On the ferry to Devenish Island, Lower Lough Erne
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St Mary's Abbey and Round Tower, Devenish Island, Lower Lough Erne
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View from Knockninney, Co. Fermanagh
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Botanical Bonanza, 31 May - 4 June 2002
At the beginning of June 2002 the Club hosted a four day Botanical Bonanza for the Wild Flower Society. It was the first Irish WFS meeting and our visitors expressed their delight with the range of habitats visited.
On Monday 3 June we visited the Giant's Causeway where Jenny Campbell gave us a conducted botanical tour of the site. Most impressive were the Oyster plant Mertensia maritima and the Thyme Broomrape Orobanche alba which was just coming into bloom. In the afternoon Jenny took us to Whitepark Bay where we were thrilled to find quite a few plants of the Frog Orchid Coeloglossum viride. Other orchids recorded were Twayblade Listera ovata, Early Purple Orchis mascula and Heath Spotted Dactylorhiza maculata.
There was great excitement when a patch of Adderstongue Ophioglossum vulgatum was found after extensive searching; it had been seen at Killard Point two days previously.
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Whitepark Bay,
3 June 2002
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The 'Gap of the North' Weekend, 24-25 August 2002
The Club held a two-day field trip to the 'Gap of the North', organised by Anne Carter and conducted mostly by Brian McElherron. Twenty two members assembled on the Saturday morning at Slieve Gullion visitors' centre. A steep walk to the south summit of Co.Armagh's highest mountain was rewarded by spectacular views. We were able to examine the cairn on the summit which contains what is claimed to be the highest passage-tomb in Britain and Ireland. Lunch time entertainment was provided by a young sparrow hawk catching and eating hairy caterpillars.
In the afternoon we visited what is thought to be the earliest historically datable stone monument in Ireland - Kilnasaggart Pillar Stone. A short walk away is the strategically sited Moyry Castle. This three storey tower, standing within a protecting bawn wall, was built by Mountjoy in 1601.
Our last visit of the day was to Creggan Churchyard where we saw the Eastwood vault. It is thought by some to be an Early Christian church, but this theory is dismissed by other archaeologists who claim it as a nineteenth-century mortuary house.
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On the summit of Slieve Gullion
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Drumiskin Round Tower
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