Connections through Landscape – Geology, Botany, History and Land Use

Mount Leinster is the highest point of the Blackstairs Mountains at 794m. The local geology, history, botany and current land uses all serve to create connections through time in this place. All are welcome on the route toward the summit with Maria Cullen of the Irish Geological Association.

We will view the landscape primarily as a geology and habitat map laid out before us in all directions. In doing so, we'll contemplate the hilltops that are remnant Caledonian Mountain cores and those that are the last vestiges of ancient volcanoes. We will think about the shaping of this landscape in the last 13,000 years since the last Ice Age. On our walk, we will discuss the impacts of recent changes in land management, some only made possible by mechanisation.

We will make another connection with the future regarding what these landscapes will look like as a result of our own decisions, along with the geological and astronomical processes that are always influencing our home planet.

Fear not, if views are not available due to cloudy conditions, maps will inform our imaginations, and we will focus on the beauty in the detail of the mountainside before us - the granite and the botany, especially the lichenised fungi.
Please wear suitable footwear for a good walk and dress for the weather.

Address
Nine Stones Car Park, Mount Leinster, Co. Carlow