What is it about?
A pollen profile from Kilmore Townland shows vegetation and land-use change over the last 4000 years. Kilmore has a rich archaeology, including extensive pre-bog, stone walls. We suggest that the stone walls were constructed in the early/middle Bronze Age, at a time of substantial human impact. Long-term local and regional woodland dynamics, and blanket-bog inception and expansion are discussed.
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Why is it important?
We report (a) fossil spores of the filmy ferns, Hymenophyllum tunbrigense, H. wilsonii and Trichomanes speciosum (the Killarney fern), and give diagnostic features that enable the spores of these ferns to be distinguished (b) the first fossil pollen record for Arbutus unedo (strawberry tree) in the Dingle peninsula (dating to 540 CE), and (c) the first published records for Fagopyrum fossil pollen in Ireland; these indicate that buckwheat was grown at Kilmore in the late eighteenth / early nineteenth centuries.
Perspectives
The main part of this paper features the pollen analytical research carried out towards an MSc degree by Dr Steffen Wolters (co-author) during his stay at the Palaeoenvironmental Research Unit, University of Galway (1993/1994). The results of subsequent tephra investigations carried out by Laura Toner in the context of an undergraduate B.Sc. (Hons) project are also reported. A distinct tephra layer, probably deriving from Öræfajökull (AD 1362) was noted. The above investigations, combined with previously published pollen profiles and information gleaned from archaeological and historical sources, provide the basis for a detailed reconstruction of Holocene environmental change on the Dingle peninsula.
Prof. (emeritus) Michael O'Connell
National University of Ireland Galway
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Holocene Flora, Vegetation and Land-Use Changes on Dingle Peninsula, Ireland, as Reflected in Pollen Analytical, Archaeological and Historical Records, Diversity, June 2025, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/d17070456.
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