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Earth Science Conservation Review
| Carrickreagh Quarry | Fermanagh |
| Site number: | 175 | File Number: | H15 |
| ESCC: | ED | ||
| Locality Type: | Quarry (disused) | Status: | local interest |
| Grid Reference: | H174521 Centroid | ||
| Google maps: | 54.41764,-7.73195 | ||
| County: | Fermanagh | Council area: | Fermanagh & Omagh District Council |
| Period: | Carboniferous | ||
| Stages: | Chadian, Visean | ||
| Lithostrat: | Ballyshannon Limestone Formation | ||
| Site Description | |
|---|---|
| Highlights: | |
The Carboniferous rocks exposed in Carrickreagh Quarry are the oldest limestones of the Ballyshannon Formation exposed in Subarea-1. | |
| Description: | |
The strata exposed in this quarry consist of dark grey, foetid, sparsely crinoidal packstones and thin shaley limestones. Some 10m above the quarry floor is a thin bed of distinctive pale lilac-grey shale. Limestone beds below this shale are at least 0.3-0.4m thick with dark shale laminae. Above the shale is a limestone bed 0.3m thick which passes up into thicker beds of medium grey limestone and finally pale-coloured grainstones at the top of the quarry. These strata represent the transition between the lower and middle informal 'members' of the Ballyshannon Limestone; the middle 'member' still contains a restricted microfauna which indicates a late Chadian age. | |
| Conclusions: | |
Whilst it is possible to nominate other quarries in the formation outcrop between Blaney and Enniskillen that expose a much greater thickness of limestone, several factors favoured the selection of these particular sites as ASSI. All three quarries at Blaney, Carrickreagh and Inisway occur in close proximity to one another and in a part of the outcrop where there is particularly good exposure and the division of the formation into 3 informal 'members' is possible. The position of the Ballyshannon Limestone - Bundoran Shale contact is well defined in the area of Inisway - Blaney West - Claragh townlands and it is one of the few places in Subarea-1 where the upper contact is recognisable. | |
| Notes: | |
For information on other sites in Subarea-1 see; Key Site 1174 - Subarea-1; Derrygonnelly-Marble Arch-Cuilcagh. | |
| Keywords | |
|---|---|
| Rocks: | Limestone, Shale |
| Fossil Groups: | Crinoid, Microfossil, Microfossils |
| Relations: | Marine sediments |
| Access | |
|---|---|
| Approach: | 5.5km E of Derrygonnelly. |
| Map(s): | See 1:50,000 O.S. Sheet 17 (Lower Lough Erne). | ||
| Record type: | ESCR report | ||
| Entered by: | Doughty, P.J. | ||
| Last updated: | 8 Jan 2005 | ||
| Enlander, I., Dempster, M. & Doughty, P., 2026. Carrickreagh Quarry, County Fermanagh, site details. [In] Earth Science Conservation Review. https://www.habitas.org.uk/escr/site.php?item=175. Accessed on 2026-11-06. |
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