Hill Landscapes

Castlecomer Plateau
Copyright Alan Vaughan.

Hill landscapes refer to upland areas between 150 and 500m above sea level, which comprises 1.4 million hectares of Irish land, with 0.5 million hectares of this land being peat soils, and ¼ of this 0.5 million hectares located in Donegal. The other dominant soils in these regions are the Lithosol Great Soil Group, Brown Earth soils and Luvisols.

Hill landscapes are typically found in the south or Ireland, particularly in the Munster uplands, with counties Cork and Kerry comprising almost 1/3 of the total hill landscapes. Landscapes including the Caha mountains in Cork, uplands of the Dingle peninsula, along with the Derrynasaggart and Boggeragh mountains further east. The underlying bedrock in these areas is typically sandstone, Old Red Sandstone, siltstone and mudstone. The Galtee Mountains of Cork, Limerick and Tipperary are made up of shale bedrock, while the Ox mountains of Mayo and Sligo are characterised by schists and granites. Towards the east the Slieve Bloom mountains comprise the hill landscapes of Laois and Offaly. Where are the hill areas of your own county? How would you find this out using the contour lines on a map?

As hillslopes are so varied, their use can’t be characterised as simply as mountainous regions. Depending on the degree of slope on a hill landscape, and the soil type underlying it, the soils can have varying agricultural uses. For example the peat soils are not typically useful, neither are Histic Lithosols of Cork, Kerry and Wicklow due to the slope, topography and elevation they occur at, along with their lack of depth preventing certain plant species from rooting. On the other hand, Brown Earth soils are much more suited to grass-based agriculture as they are typically free-draining meaning they can be grazed for most of the year, without a great deal of compaction damage from the grazing animals. Most Brown Earth soils at the hill elevation are used for grass-based agriculture.  Landscapes which are dominated by surface-water Gley soils are less suitable to agriculture, and require more management as they are more vulnerable to damage from livestock and machinery, however, if managed well, these soils can be productive.

The hill landscapes of Ireland are home to many habitats and a large range of plants and animals, which we have a responsibility to protect.

Note: this information is partly adapted from The Soils of Ireland.