Category: Natural History

• The ‘King Oak’ of Charleville Demesne, Tullamore. Blog no 772 from Offaly History, 29 Dec. 2025.

  The demesne of Charleville must rank as one of the last unspoilt areas of tranquillity in the vicinity of Tullamore and is much loved by the inhabitants of the town who are proud of the great oaks still surviving after hundreds of years and of the great Gothic mansion of Charleville Forest. The demesne is about one mile south of Tullamore on the Birr Road and encloses some 1,142 acres, most of which is planted with oaks, ash, elms and some conifers.

  Charles William Bury, then Lord Tullamore and soon to be earl of Charleville (1806), commenced building his castle in 1801 and completed the work of fashioning the demesne in the gothic sturm und drang manner by 1812. It was then the romantic period in literature and still is for many who walk in the demesne today. The old pre 1740 name for Charleville was Redwood and the first mansion house of Redwood was erected in 1641. When Charles Moore, Lord Tullamore, purchased the house and demesne in 1740 he called it Charleville. The old house was close to the existing farmhouse with the grotto of 1741 to the rear of the reconfigured river Clodiagh flowing through the demesne.

  

  Perhaps in deference to the oak trees in the vicinity Charles William Bury called his new house ‘not Charleville Castle but Charleville Forest. Already there was one giant tree known as the “King Oak” dominating like a watch tower the carriage drive to the town’. Look at the span of its gigantic arms.  One branch on the right of the photograph stretches 30 yards parallel to the ground.  The Bury family believed that if a branch fell, one of the Burys would die, so they supported the great arms with wooden props.  Of course there was nothing they could do to protect the trunk. In late 1963 a thunderbolt splintered the main trunk from top to bottom.  The tree survived, but the head of the family, Colonel Charles Howard-Bury, then of Belvedere, Mullingar dropped dead a few weeks later.

  

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  December 29, 2025

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• ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ How my hatred of the poem changed utterly. By Fergal MacCabe. Blog No 771, 27th Dec 2025

  Growing up in our house in Clonminch outside of Tullamore, I came to detest
  that mawkish dirge about the Lake Isle of Innisfree. My grandfather, who had
  once visited the island, was obsessed by the poem and insisted that I recite it
  at every party. He even named our house after it.
  Later, as a young town planner, I blamed the wretched verse for the rash of
  holiday homes that were beginning to appear in every beauty spot in Ireland
  and cursed Yeats who had provided the moral justification for this desecration.
  If a well known poet could simply arise and go and build in whatever idyllic
  place he chose, why shouldn’t everybody else?
  But – would Yeats get planning permission? I would put that to the test.

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  December 27, 2025

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• TRANSITION: Irish peatlands in a changing climate. A new photographic study of a landscape in flux. Blog No 769, 20th Dec 2025

  Ireland’s peatlands have long been a defining feature of the country’s landscape and identity—vast, open expanses that have shaped communities, powered homes, and inspired generations. But in recent years, these peatlands have entered a new chapter. TRANSITION, a striking new photographic book, captures this moment of profound change with sensitivity and depth.

  In 2019, a High Court ruling mandated that commercial peat harvesting on bogs over 30 hectares would now require planning permission. This shift accelerated the decline of industrial peat extraction, a process already underway as awareness grew of the ecological importance of peatlands. These landscapes, once seen primarily as fuel sources, are now recognised as vital carbon sinks and havens for biodiversity.

  TRANSITION captures this story through objects in time – each one a tangible link to the past, a marker of the present, or a symbol of the future. Structured in a unique A–Z format, the book presents a curated collection of items that reflect the evolving relationship between people and peatlands. These objects are thoughtfully juxtaposed to highlight the dramatic changes in land use, environmental values, and cultural identity. Each item occupies a liminal space, bridging the industrial legacy of peat harvesting with the emerging ecological renewal.

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  December 20, 2025

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• The Silver River of Slieve Bloom. From John Feehan’s address at the launch in Kilcormac on 20.11.2025. Blog No 764, 3rd Dec 2025

  It’s almost exactly 50 years since I had the great privilege of studying the geology of Slieve Bloom as a postgraduate student in Trinity College. For over 4 years after that my job was to reach into every corner of the mountains where rock might have poked through to the surface, and then bring together the clues these pieces, of the jigsaw that told the story of the formation and subsequent history of the mountains, to form a more or less coherent picture.

  But I soon began to understand two things. First of all, that in looking at the rocks I was seeing less than half of the story; even if I included the flora and fauna they supported. The other half was the human story. Slieve Bloom is what its people have made it down all the centuries, and a parallel investigation is required to assemble all the pieces of this jigsaw together into a coherent story, and then place it over the first jigsaw. And then you begin to see how they are really two sides of the same coin. 

  And then, at the end of the four years, as some of you will know, I wrote a book about it.

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  December 3, 2025

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• Change, resilience and imagination at Lough Boora: New Sculptural Works by Kevin O’Dwyer unveiled at Lough Boora Discovery Park. Blog No 763, 29th Nov 2025

  Two new sculptural works by artist Kevin O’Dwyer have been officially launched at Lough Boora Discovery Park, marking the first major additions to the park’s sculpture collection in over a decade. The works, titled Regeneration and Light as a Feather, reflect the park’s evolving story of transformation from industrial peatlands to a landscape of ecological restoration, culture and public enjoyment.

  

  Regeneration draws inspiration from the seed as a symbol of renewal, growth, and cyclical change. Rising vertically from the ground, the work acknowledges the industrial history of the site while pointing toward its continued regeneration.

  

  Light as a Feather offers a contrasting visual language — a suspended, airy form that engages with space, balance, stillness and the quiet expansiveness of Boora’s open horizon.

  “Lough Boora is a place shaped by change, resilience and imagination,” said Kevin O’Dwyer. “These works are rooted in the landscape’s capacity to hold memory while continually becoming something new. O’Dwyer says it has been an honour to contribute to this next chapter in the park’s cultural and environmental renewal.”

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  November 29, 2025

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• Mapping the Past, Shaping the Future: the Changing Story of Ireland’s Boglands. Blog No 692, 12th Feb 2025

  News of a temporary exhibition at NLI Kildare Street, Dublin for February only

  

  A new temporary exhibition at the National Library of Ireland explores the history of the Irish Bogs Commission and how its 19th-century maps are now shaping the future of Ireland’s peatlands.

  Peatlands are among the world’s most vital carbon stores and play a crucial role in climate regulation. But when they’re drained, they lose their carbon sink potential and unique biodiversity and contribute to climate change. In Ireland, peatland drainage for agriculture and industry has shaped the landscape for centuries. Now, as part of national efforts to combat climate change, restoration of these ecosystems is a top priority.

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  February 12, 2025

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• STEA2M Engineering Heritage October Festival at Birr, 19th Century Pioneers to inspire 21st Century Engineers 18th to 20th October 2024. Blog No 660, 12th Oct 2024

  

  The Great Telescope at Birr

  Agenda for the Festival

  Friday 9am to 5pm – Discover Birr Castle Demesne by taking on the engineering trail through the gardens and science centre.

  Friday 7pm – Welcome reception with tea and sandwiches followed by opening lecture(1) – 8pm. Note: All lectures in Birr Theatre and Arts Centre

  1. 8.00pm Lady Alicia Clements – Introduction to the Engineering Weekend Festival
  2. 8.15pm John Burgess – The Parsons Families of the 19^th Century

  Saturday – 10.00am Lecture (2) – Power on Land

  1. Brian Leddin TD – Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action – Welcome and Opening Remarks
  2. Geoff Horseman (Formerly Head of Turbine-Generator Engineering at Parsons and Chief Turbine Engineer at Siemens Newcastle-Upon-Tyne) – Evolution of the Parsons Land Steam Turbine

  Saturday – 11.30am guided discovery tour in Birr Castle Gardens to visit (Please note to wear non-slip footwear and outdoor gear for walking on garden trails):

  1. The Leviathan and LOFAR Telescopes – Peter Gallagher or Joe McCauley
  2. The refurbished suspension bridge,
  3. Rejuvenated hydro-electric turbine, and
  4. The secret of the lake’s ingenious water level management system.

  Saturday – 1.15pm Lunch at the Kellys Bar

  Saturday – 2.30pm Lecture (3) – Power at Sea

  1. 2.30pm Ian Whitehead – Turbinia – a daring venture in marine propulsion
  2. 3.00pm Geoff Horseman – Engines of the First Giant Turbine Passenger Liners
  3. 4.00pm Jody Power – Marine Propulsion Steam Turbines – A Personal Journey

  A recess of 2 hours from 4.30pm to regroup at 6.30pm in John’s Hall

  Saturday – 6.30 pm Exhibition in John’s Hall, Birr.

                        8.00 pm Dinner in Doolys Hotel

  Sunday – 10am – Lecture (4) – Power to Change

  1. 10.00am – Benita Stoney – The Stoney family collaboration and achievements
  2. 10.45am – Una O’Grady – Renewable Energy in the Midlands – Wind, Water and Stars
  3. 11.30am – Stephen Grant – Engineering at a time of change – 21^st to 19^th Centuries parallels to inform a paradigm shift in addressing climate change
  4. 12.15pm – Lady Alicia Clements – Farewell notes

  Sunday 1pm and 2pm – Guided tours of castle

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  October 12, 2024

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• 59 ‘The month of September in Banagher, and all along the Shannon banks, is visually a glorious one, with golden autumn mornings, the low sun making long shadows of the houses in the street’, Pope Hennessy, Bence Jones, Trollope, Banagher and the Shannon/Grand Canal landscape. No. 59 in the Grand Canal Offaly series. Blog No 619, 5th June 2024

  

  Banagher, County Offaly has associations with two well-known writers of the nineteenth century – Anthony Trollope and Charlotte Bronte.  Up to recent years nothing by way of notice of this was to be found in Banagher, but that has all changed as Banagher, now hard pressed along its main street, looks again to embrace tourism in a way that it did so well in the late nineteenth century and in the 1960s. The plans for the former hotel at Banagher will do much for the promotion of the architectural heritage of the town as did the voluntary work by the co-operative at Crank House. Pope Hennessey’s description in 1971 of Banagher in September would be music to Failte Ireland anxious as they are to extend the holiday season.  He wrote:

  ‘The month of September in Banagher, and all along the Shannon banks, is visually a glorious one, with golden autumn mornings, the low sun making long shadows of the houses in the street.  At dusk the whole river reflects the varied sunsets as the days draw in – effects of palest pink, for instance, striped by cloudy lines of green, or an horizon aflame with scarlet and orange light.’  And

  The bridge at Banagher affords a splendid view over the level reaches of the river, which here flows glassily between a countryside as flat as that in some Dutch picture.  In winter-time the flooded river spreads across these meadows to create an inland sea. In spring and early summer kingcups bloom amongst the sedge and reeds along the Shannon’s bank, wild yellow irises abound and cowslips also.  In early summer, too, plumes of mauve and purple lilacs hang over the white walls of the yards of Banagher, and the whole countryside beyond the town displays brilliant variations of the “forty shades of green”. 

  Many have tackled Trollope’s life, but none immersed himself so much in Banagher as the late James Pope Hennessy.

  John McCourt in his 2015 study of Trollope Writing the Frontier: Anthony Trollope between Britain and Ireland ‘offers an in-depth exploration of Trollope’s time in Ireland as a rising Post Office official, contextualising his considerable output of Irish novels and short stories and his ongoing interest in the country, its people, and its always complicated relationship with Britain’.

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  June 5, 2024

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• 58 Henry Inglis travels on a River Shannon steam boat and includes Killaloe, Portumna, Banagher and Athlone on his Tour in 1834. No 58 in the Grand Canal series. Blog No 618, 1st June 2024

  

  Last week we looked at the history of steamers on the Shannon. Today we take the account of Henry D. Inglis published in 1835. Inglis was a professional travel writer and author of Spain in 1830, A Journey through Norway etc, published his A Journey throughout Ireland during the Spring, Summer and Autumn of 1834 in London in 1835.  His account is well thought of and in his concluding remarks he says why jest or narrate the curious and witty eccentricities of Irish character when ‘God knows there is little real cause for jocularity, in treating of the condition of a starving people.’ So there was a degree of sympathy rather than of superiority.

  Inglis was born in Edinburgh and was the only son of a Scottish lawyer.  His Irish travels volume  was published the year of his death, (first edition, 1835, fourth edition 1836).  While considered a ‘fairly benevolent interpreter’ he could find no explanation for the Irish situation other than defects of character.

  Inglis spent a week there and also visited Killaloe, Portumna and Banagher. He went from Banagher to Athlone by road and thought the latter was a remarkably ugly town – but not withstanding an interesting and excellent business town. He spent a week in Athlone and used it as a base for touring in the county of Longford to see Goldsmith’s Country.

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  June 1, 2024

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• 50-51, Grand Canal Townlands East to West: Derries to Glyn No 50-51 in the Grand Canal Offaly Series. By Philomena Bracken, Offaly History. Blog No 606, 27th April 2024

  

  With the construction of the Grand Canal from the late 1750s, brought with it the expansion of Trade. goods could be carried from East to West along the line, this helped boost the development of the local economy from the late 18^th century. The Offaly section of the canal runs approximately 42 miles and is home to a number of species and wild plants, due to the cross over through wet bog land during the development of the canal way[1].

   The first townland we come to along this way is Derries. It is situated in the Electoral Division of Ferbane, in the Civil Parish of Wheery or Killagally, in the Barony of Garrycastle, in the County of Offaly. The Irish name for Derries is Na Doirí meaning The Oak Woods.

  

  Wheery or Killagally is a large civil parish and it extends about 7 miles from Pollagh Village.

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  April 27, 2024

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