Cloonee and Inchiquin Loughs, Uragh Wood is the name of a
Natura 2000
Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively ...
site in a valley in
Tuosist
Tuosist () is a civil parish in the far south of County Kerry, Ireland. It shares the Béara Peninsula with the neighbouring parishes of County Cork, and the Caha Mountains form the county border. The nearest town is Kenmare. The parish i ...
,
County Kerry
County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. Habitats include lowland
oligotrophic
An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates of ...
lakes (
lough
''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch.
In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spelling ...
s) and oceanic oak woodland.
Uragh Wood
Uragh Wood ( Irish: ''Tearmann Dúlra Choill na hIúraí'') is wood in Tuosist, County Kerry, Ireland, which was designated a nature reserve in 1982. The wood is largely sessile oak and covers 87 ha. It is owned by the state.
Since Ireland's ...
has been protected as a nature reserve since 1982. A
Special Area of Conservation
A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...
has since been designated which protects the wood, lakes and the surrounding area.
Cloonee and Inchiquin Loughs, Uragh Wood SAC
National Parks and Wildlife Service. The main lakes in the area are the Salt Lake, Lower Cloonee Lough, Middle Cloonee Lough, Upper Cloonee Lough (the Cloonee Loughs) and the Gleninchaquin Lake.
This is one of the areas in which the rare Kerry Slug
The Kerry slug or Kerry spotted slug (''Geomalacus maculosus'') is a species of terrestrial, pulmonate, gastropod mollusc. It is a medium-to-large sized, air-breathing land slug in the family of roundback slugs, Arionidae.
Adult Kerry slu ...
and the Lesser Horseshoe Bat are known to occur.
References
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Lakes of County Kerry
Protected areas of County Kerry
Special Areas of Conservation in the Republic of Ireland