North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Rahasane

I forgot to mention that the turlough that I visited last month is the biggest in Ireland. It's called Rahasane (after one of the towns lands that it occupies), covering 250 hectares and stretching about three kilometres long when full. It's a well-known bird habitat, and supports up to 40,000 birds in winter. The last time I was there, there were a couple of flocks of whooper swans honking noisily in the distance.

The fairy shrimp (Tanymastix stagnalis) was first discovered in Rahasane in 1974 (it's since been found in other turloughs) - it is not present in Britain but is found in mainland Europe and was probably brought over by migrating birds.