Garron Plateau

Garron is the most extensive area of intact upland Blanket bogs in Northern Ireland. The peatland complex is composed of a series of raised and flushed peat bog units and a number of oligotrophic lakes. There are large areas of well-developed bog microtopography, with a mixture of cross-leaved heath , deergrass and hare’s-tail Cottongrass, with a generally high cover of dwarf-shrubs and Sphagnum. It is the main Irish location for both few-flowered sedge and tall bog-sedge. The areas of flushed peat are extremely rich floristically, with black bog-rush and brown mosses. The site contains the only Northern Ireland populations of the Annex II species Marsh saxifrage and bog orchid.

Where the peats are thinner, localised flushing by mineral-enriched water results in the formation of alkaline fen vegetation. Although there are many such flushes, their total area is relatively small, since the flushes are generally very small in extent. Nevertheless a combination of good quality and geographical position make this habitat very important here. This is generally very species-rich, with a range of small sedges including dioecious sedge, flea sedge, tawny sedge and yellow-sedge. Herbs such as eyebright , marsh lousewort, common butterwort, lesser clubmoss, devil’s-bit scabious and marsh arrowgrass.

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