What kind of land mass is ireland

The country of Ireland , commonly referred to as the Emerald Isle for its lush green vegetation, lies in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of the United Kingdom. The island comprises two separate political entities — the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Altogether, the island covers a total of 32, square miles. The island features a lowland area in its center, with glacier-smoothed mountains around much of the edge. Make sure to bring some hiking boots , as it is a great hike and view from the top. Small rocky hills called drumlins, formed during the Ice Age, punctuate the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

If looking to have a Irish drinking tour, make sure to start along the river, as many of the distilleries are located there. Some 15 percent of the land in central and western Ireland is covered in peat bogs.

Archaeologists think the first people to settle in Ireland arrived around B. By B. Around B. They would thrive there for nearly 2, years. In the ninth century A. They established settlements that later became some of the country's main cities, including the capital, Dublin. The Vikings and Celts fought often for years until a battle in united the country. Peace broke down quickly though, and Ireland was divided into many kingdoms.

In , Norman Vikings who had taken control of England invaded Ireland and made it an English territory. In the early s, England's official religion became Protestant while most Irish remained Roman Catholic. This would create tensions that would eventually lead to revolution and Ireland's independence. By the s, British laws unfair to Catholics had sparked a mass movement for Irish sovereignty. In , many of those laws were overturned, but Ireland still wanted freedom.

In , most of Ireland became an independent country, while six mainly Protestant counties in the northeast remained a British territory. This process is made more difficult in Ireland due to unconsolidated glacial deposits covering large areas. This means that data points can be few and far between and makes interpretation of data more difficult. The bedrock map of Ireland shows a wide variety of rock types which have originated at different periods of geological time.

The oldest rocks are metamorphic and are found in areas such as Malin Head in Co. They originally formed as igneous rocks million years ago. Other old metamorphic rocks include the slates that have given rise to the slate quarry at Valentia Island, Co. Kerry, and the quartzites that are found in Counties Donegal and Wicklow. Sedimentary rocks are widespread. They include the Old Red Sandstones from the Devonian period.

These are common in the 'ridge and valley' landscape that runs across much of south-west Ireland. Limestone also covers much of the country most notably in the midlands and in areas such as the Burren in Co.

GSI produced a book aimed at teachers and enthusiasts alike to better understand earth processes, rocks and the geology of Ireland. Please see dedicated publication page to download the book or purchase it from the online shop. Geology of Ireland Geology of Ireland. Throughout the greater part of the lowland the bedrock is hidden by glacial deposits which, in the north central part of the country, form a broad belt of small hills drumlins. The glacial cover also modified the early drainage pattern and in places created groundwater conditions which facilitated the growth of peat bogs.

Rivers The lowland is drained by numerous slow- flowing streams, the largest of which is the River Shannon, km in length. In its middle course this river broadens into a number of attractive lakes but as it approaches the sea its gradient steepens. This is the location of Ireland's earliest hydro-electric power scheme. The main rivers draining eastwards are the Lagan, which flows into Belfast Lough, the Liffey, with Dublin at its mouth, and the Slaney, which enters the sea at Wexford.

In the south of Ireland the long east-west synclinal valleys are occupied by such rivers as the Suir, the Lee and the Blackwater which reach the coast by making right-angled turns to pass southwards through the sandstone ridges in narrow gorge-like valleys.

Climate Ireland's mild and equable climate is a reflection of the fact that its shores are bathed by the relatively warm ocean waters of the North Atlantic Drift. The figures for Dublin are 4. Extremely high or low temperatures are virtually unknown. Influenced by the Atlantic Ocean the weather in Ireland is mild, wet and changeable. It is not too hot and not too cold.

It can rain at any time in Ireland but prolonged periods of rainfall are rare enough. Snow and severe frost are usually confined to December, January and February.

Rainfall is heaviest on the westward facing slopes of the hills where it may exceed 3, mm in Kerry, Mayo and Donegal. The east is much drier and Dublin records on average only mm annually. The outstanding feature of the Irish weather is its changeability, a characteristic which it shares with all the countries that lie in the path of the temperate depressions. However more stable atmospheric conditions may arise in winter with the extension of the continental high pressure system bringing clear skies and cool conditions, especially to the eastern part of the country.

In summer an extension of the Azores high pressure system may bring periods of light easterly winds and bright sunny weather. Soils Most of the soils of Ireland are derived from glacial drift and reflect its varied composition and texture. There are large areas of fertile grey-brown podzolic soils on the better drained parts of the lowland. These give way to less fertile acid brown earths where the parent material is low in lime or to gleyed soils where the drainage is poor. Thin acid peaty soils are widespread on the hills.

Vegetation The visitor to Ireland is immediately impressed by two aspects of the vegetation cover. The first is an impression of intense greenness, the result of the abundant grasses responding to the mild moist air. The second is the relative absence of trees, especially along the western seaboard where strong winds are the main limiting factor to growth. The once extensive oak woodlands of the midlands were cleared over most of the country by the seventeenth century and remain today only as remnants in remote areas.

The flora is of more limited variety than elsewhere in Europe but it has some interesting features. The numerous bryophytes and lichens reflect the mildness and high humidity of this part of Ireland. Fauna Apart from seals which breed around the coast and whales which occasionally visit coastal waters, Ireland has twenty-seven species of mammal.

These include the red deer, pine marten, badger, otter, hare and stoat which are native to the country, as well as introduced species such as the fallow deer, rabbit and other rodents. Ireland's only reptile is a small lizard and there are three amphibia, the newt, the frog and the toad. The rivers and lakes have salmon, trout, char, pollan, perch, pike and eels. Of the three hundred and eighty species of wild bird recorded in Ireland, only about one-third breed in the country.

People Ireland has been inhabited since Stone-Age times and for more than five thousand years has been the recipient of peoples moving westwards across the European continent. Each new group of immigrants has contributed something to its population and culture and no group ever entirely obliterated the character of the earlier ones. It is these diverse elements that have come together to form the distinctive Irish nation of today.

The population of all Ireland was 8. After the famine of , when many people died and many more emigrated, the population began to decrease, so that by it was only half what it had been in One result of this large-scale emigration, which continued throughout the latter part of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century, was that many people of Irish descent have made their homes in other countries.

From the s population numbers gradually stabilised and between and there was a modest annual increase averaging just over one per cent. From , however, the population declined for a few years as a result of renewed high emigration. The total number of people living in the state in was 3,,, a decrease of 17, on the figure. The overall density of population is 50 per square kilometre.

There is a strong and continuing movement from rural areas to towns so that 52 per cent of the population now live in urban areas of 1, inhabitants or more. The rural population, which is mainly in dispersed, isolated farmsteads, is fairly evenly distributed throughout the country except in the mountainous areas and the peat bogs.

Densities as high as per square kilometre occur along the western seaboard, where the farms are small. Low rural densities are associated with the larger farms on the richer land in the east. The influence of Dublin and other urban areas is clearly seen in the above-average densities in their contiguous rural areas. In Ireland Republic Roman Catholics comprise 95 per cent of the community.

Other denominations include Church of Ireland Anglican , Presbyterian, Methodist and a number of smaller Protestant groups.