Owenboy

View across to Owenboy Bog
View across to Owenboy Bog
View across to Owenboy Bog

Owenboy

  • Country: 
    Ireland
  • Site number: 
    371
  • Area: 
    397 ha
  • Designation date: 
    01-06-1987
  • Coordinates: 
    54°05'N 09°27'W
Materials presented on this website, particularly maps and territorial information, are as-is and as-available based on available data and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Overview

The Site is part of an extensive blanket bog complex with some wet heath on sloping or elevated ground, and an extensive pool system including dystrophic lakes along with springs and flushes. It is surrounded by a mosaic of cut and uncut blanket bog, agricultural grassland, conifer plantations and wind farms. There are a few scattered dwellings and small settlements in the area. A conifer plantation was removed from the Site’s northern boundary under a bog restoration project funded by the European Union’s LIFE programme, but another remains along the south-eastern boundary. Vegetation includes Sphagnum species and many sedges and mosses. The wetter domes and flushes are feeding sites for wintering white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons), whose numbers wintering on blanket bog habitat in the west of Ireland have declined dramatically over the last 20 or 30 years. Wind turbines pose a threat to the ecological character of the Site.

Administrative region: 
Mayo

  • National legal designation: 
    • National Nature Reserve - Owenboy Nature Reserve
    • nature reserve
  • Regional (international) legal designations: 
    • EU Natura 2000
  • Last publication date: 
    07-03-2023