You can find a park by its number on our overview map. . .

38 - Glenveagh National Park, Co. Donegal

With almost 10,000 hectares of mountains, moorlands, lakes and woods, this park in the north-west of Donegal has the authentic feel of wilderness. The lands include the peaks of the two highest mountains in Donegal, Errigal and Slieve Snaght, and the fine hills of Dooish and Lehanmore enclose the spectacular valley which gives the park its name.

At the heart of the Glenveagh Valley, Lough Veagh is surrounded by the scattered remains of an oak and birch forest which once covered much of Donegal.

Glenveagh has the largest herd of red deer in Ireland. Above the pipits and stonechats of the uplands the ravens soar, and occasional peregrines and merlins. In the park woodlands, rich in mosses and ferns, the birds include siskins, tree-creepers, redstarts and wood warblers. The woods are also home to badgers, foxes and stoats.

Access to the park from Letterkenny is by the N56 through Kilmacrenan, turning left on to the Gweedore road, or via Church Hill and past the lakes of Gartan and Akibbon. From the north coast of Donegal, access is via Creeslough or Falcarragh, and from the west coast via Gweedore and Dunlewy. The visitor center includes an audiovisual show and natural history displays. A self-guiding nature trail is also available, and there are guided nature walks in summer.

39 - Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry

To the south and west of the town of Killarney, the famous lakes shimmer at the heart of a park of more than 10,000 hectares.

The park conserves the largest areas of natural woodland left in Ireland. On the old red sandstone of the mountains are native oakwoods, dominated by sessile oak, the ultimate tree of the steep Atlantic valleys. The smaller woods on the lower land include a yew wood growing on almost bare limestone on the Muckross peninsula. The mild, moist, oceanic climate encourages a luxuriant growth of heathery moss and ferns, many entwined in"hanging gardens' on the higher branches of the trees. Some of the park's wild plants are shared with the oceanic lands of southwest Europe, such as the arbutus, or strawberry tree, growing at the edge of the woods and along the rocky lake shore, or the greater butterwort, flourishing in the bog.

The red deer which roam the upland areas are the only herd of native red deer remaining in the country. They are outnumbered by the smaller Japanese Sika deer, found not only on the open mountain but throughout the park woodlands.

The park's main center for visitors is Muckross House. There are four self-guiding nature trails in the park, for which leaflets are available at Muckross House, where an audio-visual introduction to the park can also be seen.

40 - Connemara National Park, Co. Galway

With 2,000 hectares of mountains and grassland, this is a park with a blend of ruggedness and moist luxuriance that epitomizes the west of Ireland.

Within the park, many of the mountain sides are clothed with heathers—ling, bell, cross-leaved heath and the pink-belled St. Dabeoc's heath, more common in south-west Europe. Among the mountain alpines are roseroot, purple and starry saxifrages and mountain sorrel. The park's blanket bog is wet and deep—up to 30 feet—with a good variety of characteristic flowers, including sundews and butterworts, orchids and bog myrtle.

The park entrance is on the Clifden side of Letterfrack village and the visitor center is in restored farm buildings. There are nature trails with accompanying booklets, an audio-visual show and a summer series of nature talks and guided walks. Visitors are encouraged to explore all parts of the park for themselves.

41 - Wicklow Mountains National Park, Co. Wicklow

The Wicklow Mountains National Park has an initial core area of 3,700 hectares centered on Glendalough and including the Glenealo Valley and Glendalough Woods Nature Reserves.

The Glenealo Valley is one of the largest tracts of undisturbed heath and bog in County Wicklow and is an important part of a network of heath/bog reserves representing examples of mountain vegetation in the east of the country. One of the major deer habitats of County Wicklow, it also has high-level moorland bird species such as ravens, red grouse, skylarks and meadow pipits. Peregine falcon and merlin are present.

There is a park information office near the car park at the Upper Lake at Glendalough. Information is also available from the interpretative center for the nearby monastic monuments of Glendalough.

42 - The Burren, Co. Clare

Some 500 square kilometers of bare stone hills, terraces and shattered limestone slabs are turned into a rockgarden by an extraordinary mixture of plants. When they flower in spring, the strangeness and beauty of the landscape is like nothing else in Ireland—perhaps, indeed, in Europe.

Alpine and lowland flowers, northern and southern, crowd together in the chinks and deep cracks of the limestone to produce a bewildering, topsy-turvy world of botany. Extremely profuse are several plants which are usually found on the mountains or in the Arctic—mountain avens, bear-berry, spring gentian and several alpine saxifrages. Beside them grow plants of a southern range, such as the dense flowered orchid, which belongs on the Mediterranean, or the maidenhair fern, which extends to the tropics. All of these grow together right down to the edge of the sea.

The most impressive approach to the Burren generally is through Kinvara and Ballyvaughan on the northern coast of County Clare. There is a National Nature Reserve of 145 hectares on the Burren at Slieve Carron. Aillwee Cave, south of Ballyvaughan is open to the general public.

43 - Derrynane National Historic Park, Co. Kerry

Home of Daniel O'Connell, one of the greatest figures in Irish history, Derrnane House is now a commemorative museum within a national historic park of great charm. It includes a nature trail through sand dunes to the shore of Derrynane bay. The trail points out aspects of the dunes' plant and animal communities and how they are conserved. Marsh and woodland habitats can also be seen within the park. To the west, Abbey Island can be reached on foot across the sands and is home to the rare Kerry lily (Simethis planifolia) in its only Irish locality. It should not be picked or uprooted.

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