Donegal Ireland

Basalts give strong rich clays, with a considerable amount of lime and some phosphoric acid. Limestone soils are often shallow and warm, and yield a very nutritious vegetation. Some limestones yield a small percentage of phosphoric acid, and the soils formed from them arc in consequence greatly enriched. Soils derived from limestone are sometimes deficient in lime, for this is removed as a bicarbonate, and only the clayey impurity of the lime is left. Silurian grits and shales yield soils which vary according to the predominance of one or the other rock. Where sandstones are in great abundance, the soils are usually fine, and vegetation thrives.

Metamorphic rocks-gneisses, mica-schists and quartzites-are found over large areas in Donegal (Hotels, Donegal, Ireland), Londonderry, and Tyrone; and associated with the gneisses and quartzites in these counties are tracts of barren lands.

The province has benefited largely by its inheritance of ice-borne or drift soils. In Donegal (Holiday Cottages, Donegal, Ireland) debris from altered shale (mica-schist) rocks, with some limestone occasionally included, has been deposited over granite, and patches of good soil are formed along the western coast. Around Donegal and Upper Lough Erne the soils owe their richness to the limestone debris of the boulder-clay, but about Ballintra a sandy drift covers a limestone area and the soils are poorer in consequence.

Steatite or Soapstone is used in the preparation of French chalk. It is mined at Lough Gartan, Churchill, Co. Donegal.

Ked granite is quarried at Barnesmore, Co. Donegal (Accommodation, Donegal, Ireland), and forms a beautiful ornamental stone when polished. A yellow sandstone quarried at Mount Charles, near Donegal ( Self Catering, Donegal, Ireland), is coming into prominence as a building stone. It has been used in large buildings in Dublin and in the piers of the new bridges over the arms of the Lee in Cork. Granite from the Mourne mountains, and Newry granite, are also used to some extent in building in the neighbouring towns and in Belfast. The dark basalt of Donegal is sometimes roughly squared and dressed, but is more. largely used for rubble masonry.

Posted on April 15th, 2008 under Geology. Tags: basalt, clay, Donegal, drift soil, Geology, limestone soil, phosporic acid, shale rocks. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.