Fardrum Turlough

Image: © Falcon Taken: 26 Oct 2006

Fardrum Turloughs lie between Monea and Castle Hume Golf club on the shores of Lower Lough Erne. A Turlough is a lake that periodically dries out with the fluctuating watertable due to the bed of the lake being formed from porous limestone. There are 3 turloughs at this location in a shallow valley running parallel to the shore line of the main lough. They are Fardrum, Roosky and Green Lough. The Fardrum turloughs are the only ones in Northern Ireland, and represent the most northerly occurrence of this habitat in Ireland and the UK. All three contain distinctive vegetation communities associated with their inundation zone, including the bryophytes Cinclidotus fontinaloides and Fontinalis antipyretica. Green Lough supports the nationally rare fen violet Viola persicifolia and a very rich ground-beetle fauna including the carabids Blethisa multipunctata and Pelophila borealis. The photograph above shows Green Lough (the southern most turlough) which is hidden behind a small forestry plantation. It shows the turlough in late summer whilst the water levels are low, just below the ground level. A few days later and most of this field was flooded.

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