November 21, 2004
Two lakes
Drenched moss on a gate pier beside Caherglassaun turlough, Co. Galway.
Friday morning was simply beautiful. The bright-shining stars in a velvet-black sky gave way to flame-coloured clouds as the dawn arrived. Alas, Friday was a work day but it fired my enthusiasm for some early-morning photography. And red clouds at dawn mean only one thing - rain (it doesn't matter how often Met Eireann refer to it as 'precipitation' - we know what they really mean). On Friday night, snow fell for abut two minutes before settling down to a night of rain. And on Saturday morning, the rain was still falling, so it seemed appropriate to visit some places directly affected by rainfall. Which brings me back to turloughs again (I promise - this is the last mention until after Xmas, at least).
Last September, I was in Coole Park at the end of the tourist season. There was a large number of people wandering about the park, as well as enjoying the food in the visitor centre. Not so yesterday. A few hardy souls braved the drizzle, the visitor centre is closed until the spring and most of the paths are covered in a bronze carpet of beech leaves.
Coole Lough isn't strictly a turlough - the lake is permanent. But it has all the characteristics of a turlough, flooding the shallow volleyed farmland every winter and providing a home to thousands of migratory bird. As you can see, the difference is quite dramatic. Two months later in the season, the level of the water has risen substantially (photo taken from nearly the same spot, using the rock as a marker).
Only a couple of miles to the west of Coole is a turlough that has an even more interesting characteristic. As well as providing a winter habitat to flocks of Whooper and Bewick swans, and thousands of ducks (the Whoopers were making a quite a racket when I was there on Saturday), it is partially tidal. Despite its location five miles east of Kinvarra, underground channels link it to the coast, and the pressure of the tide forces the level of the lake up and down accordingly, with a three hour time lag between the rise of the tide and the rise of the turlough’s surface level.
Posted by Monasette at November 21, 2004 11:40 PM