Report Cover Vol I - Clare County Library

The County Clare Wetlands Survey Patrick Crushell & Peter Foss 2008
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5.1 County Clare an introduction
5 County Clare Wetlands
County Clare, is situated on the West Coast of Ireland in the province of Munster covering an area of
some 318,784 hectares. It is bounded by counties Galway to the north, Limerick and Kerry to the south
and Tipperary to the East. Its natural boundaries comprise Galway Bay to the north, the River Shannon
and Lough Derg to the east, the Shannon Estuary to the south and the Atlantic to the west.
The population of Clare based on the 2006 census is 110,950 (54,902 female & 56,048 male). The
distribution of population is uneven with an increasing trend towards the south east of the county and in
particular the urban area of Ennis. Notwithstanding this, Clare is a relatively rural county in population
terms.
Clare has an extremely diverse economy. Agriculture and agriculture-related activities still form an
important element of the county's economic base but industrial development is of great importance in the
Ennis and Shannon Areas, with the Shannon Free Zone being one of the biggest Regional Industrial
Centres in the country.
5.2 County Clare’s natural wealth
The County is recognised as having some of the most exceptional natural environments in the country,
notably the Burren, the coastline and Lough Derg. Clare has a coastline of 360 km in length. This consists
of 192 km of Atlantic seaboard and an estuarial freshwater coastline of approximately 168 km. Although
County Clare is internationally renowned for the karst landscape of the Burren, which is underlain by
karstified limestone, which is highly water permeable, the county displays an abundance and rich
diversity of wetlands types.
The County can be divided into 3 main regions as follows (see Figure 5.1):
Uplands (A): The upland areas of Slieve Aughty and Slieve Bernagh occur in the eastern part of the
County and are associated with older Silurian and Devonian rock.
Intermediate Region (B): This region includes much of the western side of the County including the
Burren. The topography is gently sloping and includes peaks at Slieve Elva (343 m) in the
northwest and Slievecallan (391 m) in the west.
Lowlands (C): The areas immediately north, south and east of Ennis are low-lying. Similarly, the
Kilkee to Kilrush area, stretching south-westerly to Loop Head, is a lowland region.
The main river in the county is the River Fergus, which follows a course southward across the lowland of
the county through a series of lakes until it becomes tidal below the town of Ennis. The Fergus drains the
centre of County Clare and is 1,043 km 2 in area; springs associated with the river constitute important
water supplies for the town. The largest lake on the Shannon, Lough Derg, forms the eastern boundary of
the county. While in the west a number of smaller rivers drain from the uplands, the short distance
westwards, into the Atlantic or to the south into the Shannon Estuary.
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