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Earth Science Conservation Review
| Fallahogy Bog (Wolf Island) | Londonderry |
| Site number: | 104 | ||
| ESCC: | IS | ||
| Locality Type: | Altitude: 43m, Inland exposure | Status: | ASSI |
| Grid Reference: | C925075 Centroid | ||
| Google maps: | 54.90703,-6.55786 | ||
| County: | Londonderry | Council area: | Mid Ulster District Council |
| Period: | Quaternary | ||
| Stages: | Holocene | ||
| Site Description | |
|---|---|
| Highlights: | |
Fallahogy was the bog where the Landnam (early land clearance event) was first discovered in Ireland, and first radiocarbon dated. It has since become an important site for tephra studies and for investigations of mediaeval and recent landscape change. STATUS This site was designated an ASSI in May 1997. PAST AND PRESENT RESEARCH STATUS This site was used in a pioneering pollen study by Dr. A. G. Smith, soon after he came from Cambridge to the Department of Botany at QUB (Smith 1958). He set out to look for the earliest signs of agriculture as found by Iversen in Denmark and Fallahogy was his choice of bog. Smith's published investigations of the site were seminal to understanding landscape and climate change in the late Irish Mesolithic and Neolithic. Sampling was carried out from the dome of the bog. From a palaeoenvironmental perspective, Fallahogy Bog or Mire, as it is described in the earlier publications, is the best known of the extensive lowland raised bogs along much of the length of the west bank of the Lower Bann. The site was re-visited in the 1960's to provide larger peat samples for radiocarbon dating. Samples were taken from the cuttings near the road (Smith and Willis 1964). Samples of Sphagnum peat from Fallahogy (from the Smith and Willis monolith) were later used as an interlaboratory check between the Cambridge and Belfast radiocarbon laboratories (Sample UB-63; Smith et al. 1970). Additionally, the site was visited a number of times during the 1970's to obtain samples for investigating the range of dates for bog pines in the north of Ireland. Bog pines from the road-side cutting dated to 7245 +/- 100 BP (UB-621: Smith et al. 1973a) and from the south side of the bog to 5565 +/- 70 BP (UB-725: Smith et al. 1973b). Two further trees from the east side were dated to 7970 +/- 65 BP (UB-767) and 7065 +/- 60 BP (UB-768: both in Pearson and Pilcher 1975). Two samples of pine cones from layers just above the transition from reed-swamp peat to ombrogenous peat were dated to 7675 +/- 105 BP (UB-723) and 7610 +/- 100 BP (UB-724: Smith et al. 1973b). Further work on the bog pines is mentioned in Pilcher et al. (1995). Fallahogy was one of the sites at which the Irish tephra work was pioneered. A full Holocene profile was prepared covering a 6m core of peat. Corings from the dome encountered some more or less liquid layers and sampling was repeated to the south-east of the dome where cuttings had drained the bog somewhat. New tephra-dated pollen work has been carried out by Hall et al. (1993; 1994) utilising the fact that this is one of the few bogs in the Bann Valley that has an undisturbed top, giving a complete record through the historic period. Various smaller investigations have been carried out including a class project on the relationship of small (stunted) pine stumps to the eruption of Hekla in 2310 BC. Fallahogy was used as one of a series of UK raised bogs in the NERC funded TIGGER initiative (Special Topic Grant GST/02/701) to investigate proxy records of climate change in the UK over the last two millennia. This is unpublished at present, but is mentioned in the TIGGER IIa Newsletter 2 (September 1993). The following is abstracted from this newsletter: "The macrofossil and humification analyses are complete on this bog. The core shows a very large range in its macrofossil indicators of dryness/wetness. In particular there is a prominent period of bog surface wetness signalled by peat with a very high proportion of Sphagnum leaves from the sections Subsecunda and Cuspidata, bog mosses which grow almost exclusively in pools, around AD 1650-1800, the last pulse of the Little Ice Age. This is very encouraging in terms of the sensitivity of Fallahogy Bog to climatic change, and allows us to compare this period, which is largely within the instrumental record, with another less intense period lower down the core at around AD 900-1100." The main dome of the bog now has few open pools and appears considerably less wet than it was in 1993 when the bog was cored in mid-July for tephra studies. At this time the bog was still very wet. The dry hot summer of 1995 and continued machine cutting appear to be adversely affecting the entire bog hydrology. In the past, peat was cut for fuel from vertical faces around much of the edge of the bog. Traditional spade cutting has now almost ceased but there has been renewed interest in obtaining fuel from the site as witnessed by the fragmented areas horizontally cut by machine. The east-side drain beside the main road, which had been opened some time in the past has continued to cause problems for the hydrology of the site. In the summer of 1996, pig slurry was discharged into this drain. In the late winter of 1996/97 access to the site was impossible as the drain had been greatly widened and deepened. | |
| Conclusions: | |
Although not as wet a site as it was in the early 1990's, Fallahogy Bog is still one of the most important lowland bog systems in central N. Ireland. It will continue to be investigated. Some serious damage was done in the mid 1990's by machine cutting particularly on uncut areas to the north end of the bog. As the site now has ASSI status, DoE should continue to scale down mechanised peat cutting and monitor the site to prevent further damage to the bog's sensitive hydrology and nutrient status through the opening of drains and discharge of animal waste. A policy of drain blocking, particularly the large north-south drain, and the removal of the ever-growing rubbish tip at the main entrance of the site would improve the site's present condition, possibly re-instating its former wetness, and discouraging continued abuse by some people living nearby. | |
| Notes: | |
For general information on the Late Quaternary and Holocene of Northern Ireland see the following site: Key Site 101 - Introduction to the Late Quaternary and Holocene of Northern Ireland For site specific information on the Late Quaternary and Holocene of Northern Ireland see the following sites: Key Site 102 - Sluggan Bog Key Site 103 - Garry Bog Key Site 105 - Slieve Gallion Key Site 106 - Garvaghullion Bog Key Site 107 - Claraghmore Bog Key Site 108 - Glen West Bog | |
| Keywords | |
|---|---|
| Structures: | tephra |
| Relations: | Interglacial deposit |
| Geomorph: | raised bog |
| Paleoenv: | grassland, temperate forest, tundra |
| Access | |
|---|---|
| Threats: | Mechanised peat cutting for fuel and associated drainage; dumping of rubbish and discharge of animal waste. |
| References (11) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Hall, V.A. & Pilcher, J.R., 1995. Irish Grassland History In Irish Grasslands - their biology and management, pp.188-193 Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. | |||
| Hall, V.A., Pilcher, J.R. & McCormac, F.G., 1993. Tephra dated landscape history of the north of Ireland, AD 750-1150 New Phytologist, vol. 125, pp.193-202. | |||
| Pilcher, J.R. & Hall, V.A., 1992. Towards a tephrochronology for the Holocene of the north of Ireland The Holocene, vol. 2 pt. 3, pp.255-259. | |||
| Pilcher, J.R., Baillie, M.G.L., Brown, D.M., McCormac, F.G., MacSweeney, P.B. & McLawrence, A.S., 1995. Dendrochronology of subfossil pine in the north of Ireland Journal of Ecology, vol. 83, pp.665-671. | |||
| Pilcher, J.R., Hall, V.A. & McCormac, F.G., 1996. An outline tephrochronology for the north of Ireland Journal of Quaternary Science, vol. 11 pt. 6, pp.485-494. | |||
| Smith, A.G., 1958. Pollen analytical investigations of the mire at Fallahogy Td. Co. Derry Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 59 pt. B, pp.329-343. | |||
| Smith, A.G., 1964. Problems in the study of the earliest agriculture in Northern Ireland In Report of the VIth International Congress on the Quaternary, Warsaw 1961. | |||
| Smith, A.G. & Willis, E.H., 1961. Radiocarbon dating of the Fallahogy landnam phase Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. 24-25, pp.16-24. | |||
| Smith, A.G., Pearson, G.W & Pilcher, J.R., 1973. Belfast radiocarbon dates VI Radiocarbon, vol. 15, pp.599-610. | |||
| Smith, A.G., Pilcher, J.R. & Pearson, G.W., 1973. Belfast radiocarbon dates V Radiocarbon, vol. 15, pp.212-228. | |||
| Smith, A.G., Pilcher, J.R., Baillie, M.G.L., Hillam, J. & Pearson, G.W., 1972. Dendrochronological work in progress in Belfast; the prospects for an Irish post-glacial tree-ring sequence vol. 1 In Proceedings of the 8th international conference on radiocarbon dating, pp.A92-A96. | |||
| Record type: | ESCR report | Recorded by: | Jonathan R. Pilcher and Valerie A. Hall, Queen's U |
| Entered by: | E M Porter | ||
| Last updated: | 23 Dec 2003 | ||
| Enlander, I., Dempster, M. & Doughty, P., 2026. Fallahogy Bog (Wolf Island), County Londonderry, site details. [In] Earth Science Conservation Review. https://www.habitas.org.uk/escr/site.php?item=104. Accessed on 2026-11-06. |
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