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Earth Science Conservation Review
| Claragh Townland | Fermanagh |
| Site number: | 178 | File Number: | H15 |
| ESCC: | EO | ||
| Locality Type: | Stream section | Status: | local interest |
| Grid Reference: | H148529 Centroid | ||
| Google maps: | 54.4249,-7.77196 | ||
| County: | Fermanagh | Council area: | Fermanagh & Omagh District Council |
| Period: | Carboniferous | ||
| Stages: | Arundian, Visean | ||
| Lithostrat: | Bundoran Shale Formation | ||
| Site Description | |
|---|---|
| Highlights: | |
This exposure of the Bundoran Shale Formation is probably one of the best that is known to occur in Subarea-1. | |
| Description: | |
Here, at Claragh towards the base of the Bundoran Shale Formation, the strata crop out in the deeply incised stream forming the boundary between Tabagh and Claragh townlands. The strata are folded into an open syncline which may owe its origin to a combination of NW and NE-trending faults that cut the section at its southern end and excise the top of the formation. The former fault line is also intruded by a Tertiary dolerite dyke and adjacent brecciated mudstones are hornfelsed. At the base of the section, in the north, dark grey bioclastic limestones up to 0.15m thick, which are interbedded with shaley limestones, up to 0.2m thick, and blue-grey calcareous mudstones, about 0.25m thick, are inclined southwards at 12-20 deg. These have been recently interpreted as representing the transition upwards from the Ballyshannon Limestone to the Bundoran Shale. However having compared these limestones to the highest sequence of the Ballyshannon Limestone exposed at Inisway some 1.8km to the east-southeast, it is clear that they are quite dissimilar and clearly the Claragh section lies entirely within the Bundoran Shale. Higher in the section, southwards, the limestones consist of thin nodular beds that are commonly separated by over 1m of mudstone. | |
| Interpretation: | |
Many other sections exist within the formation outcrop in Subarea-1 that also demonstrate the typical lithologies and yield the prolific mid-Arundian macrofauna that is characteristic of the Bundoran Shale. Lists of various phyla and taxa collected from this formation will be presented for the Bundoran Shale in other subareas. | |
| Conclusions: | |
The Cabragh section in the Bundoran Shale is composed of lithologies that are quite typical of this formation but unfortunately has not yielded the prolific coral and brachiopod faunas that are found at most other localities. | |
| Notes: | |
For information on other sites in Subarea-1 see; Key Site 1174 - Subarea-1; Derrygonnelly-Marble Arch-Cuilcagh. | |
| Keywords | |
|---|---|
| Rocks: | Limestone, Mudstone |
| Relations: | Marine sediments |
| Access | |
|---|---|
| Approach: | 3km ENE of Derrygonnelly. |
| References (1) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Oswald, D.H., 1955. The Carboniferous Rocks between the Ox Mountains and Donegal Bay. Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 111, pp.167-186. | |||
| 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. Claragh Townland, County Fermanagh, site details. [In] Earth Science Conservation Review. https://www.habitas.org.uk/escr/site.php?item=178. Accessed on 2026-11-06. |
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