Bog of Allen

The Bog of Allen is chiefly situated in Kildare, but it also extends into the King’s and Queen’s counties, and partly into Westmeath; and is estimated to contain about three hundred thousand acres.[1] It is, like the other bogs of Ireland, composed chiefly of the remains of ancient forests of oak, pine, yew, hazel, birch, alder, mountain-ash, and poplar; and the vast quantity of bogs in Ireland shows the great extent of the forests in former times, and hence one of the ancient names of Ireland was Fiodh-Inis, signifying the “Woody Island.”

Notes

[1] Acres: We read that in the reign of the Irish Monarch, King Cormac MacArt, the site of the Bog of Allen was covered by an extensive forest.

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