North Kerry Waxcap Survey 2012 - the Northern Ireland Fungus Group

The Study Area
County Kerry is too large geographically for a single survey. It was not feasible to divide the
county along vice county boundaries as the two vice counties are disjunct with South Kerry –
H1 including the Dingle peninsula (Webb, 1980). The original proposal for this survey included
the northern coast of the Iveragh peninsula and missed parts of northern Kerry in the region of
Tarbert. It was decided for practical reasons with the aim of minimising travel time and
maximising survey time to change this and have a much simpler north – south division of the
county with the boundary following a line eastwards from the southern coast of the Dingle
peninsula.
Map 1 – Study Area
The Vice county of South Kerry is coloured in pink and North Kerry in blue. The Study area
border is in purple
As waxcap grasslands are so sensitive to agricultural improvement, the best sites are often
steep mountain slopes, inaccessible islands, coastal cliffs, fields that have not been improved
due to owner age or difficult access, estate lawns and churchyards. This means that the
Dingle peninsula was the most likely source of sites and the part of the vice county of North
Kerry in the study area was less hopeful. The uplands to the east of Tralee (Stack Mountain,
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