Wicklow Mountains Lakes
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| Heather plant paradise |
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| Green mountainous landscape and glacial lakes |
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| Heather fields and boglands |
There are several high-altitude lakes within and bordering the Park including Upper Lough Bray, Lough Nahanagan, Lough Ouler, Lough Firrib and Arts Lough. Most of these lakes formed in hollows created by glaciers during the Ice Age. Larger lakes along the valley floors like The Glendalough Lakes and Lough Dan.
Traced back 15.000 years to the end of the Ice Age like the rest of Ireland Wicklow Mountains was originally cleared of trees by the Neolithic times and has many surviving monuments and passage tombs or graves. With growth of blanket bogs combined with forest clearance have been inhabited since then.
The formation of many of the higher lakes in Ireland goes back to the last Ice Age when huge hollows were dug out of mountainsides by glaciers. When the Ice Age ended, the hollows filled with rainwater to become lakes.
The process started during a period of extreme cold, when ice would first form on the top of a mountain. The ice gradually built up and started to slide down the mountain slope. Any rocks covered in ice were plucked away. Eventually, the flowing ice would leave behind a deep hollow known as a corrie. The corrie would have steep cliffs both at the back and sides, and a raised lip at the front. The corries usually formed on the north and east facing slopes of the summits, as these areas were protected from the sun and wind. Most of the Wicklow corries have small streams draining from their sides but some are dammed by accumulated piles of sand and gravel deposited by the glaciers known as moraines.
As the Ice Age progressed, the mountains were eventually covered over with a deep layer of ice. This icecap eroded away the tops of the mountains and the flowing ice of glaciers formed deep wide u-shaped valleys. In Glendalough and Clohoge Valleys a series of lakes formed at the bottom of the valleys after the ice had melted away. These lakes are known as ribbon lakes.
The uplands provide a habitat for a unique and diverse range of flora. Different habitats are home to a specific set of plant species from blanket bog, heath, grassland and woodland. The uplands are even home to carnivorous plants such as sundew and lesser butterwort. Bell and ling heather, lichens, sedges, purple moor-grass, Cranberry, Crowberry and a variety of Wood Sorrel, Lesser Celandine, Wood Anemone, and Herb Robert . The woodlands are also host to a range of native and non-native, conifer species.
Some of Wicklow’s best surviving examples of native woodland are found at Glendalough Woods, and despite appearances most of the trees are quite young, only 150-200 years old!
