Wait for me! A common Periwinkle makes its way down to the tide on Dollar Bay and leaves quite an impressive trail as it does so. They don’t normally wander too far from their habitats but in order to lay their eggs, they must make this long, arduous trek (in snail-pace terms anyway!)
Have you ever peered into a rock pool and seen this looking back. The Common Blenny or Shanny is one of our more common rock-pool fishes. Up to 10cm long, it is usually Brown/Green in colour with darker blotches (males turn Black with a white mouth in the breeding season). Once the female has laid…
What you may find as a cute little shell, mussles fear this ancient carnivour coming to eat them in their shells. Who needs ghost stories with this going on.
Sea Foam or Spume is as its name suggests just that. Foam is the result of gas, in this case air, mixing with liquid-seawater. This happens especially in the surf-zone when large waves are active. Dissolved organic particles in the seawater act as foaming agents or surfactants, similar to what you get in washing-up liquid.…
Visitors to the lighthouse may have taken a quick stroll to the end of the road and wondered what the concrete slabs were once used for. These are the remnants of the WW2 Lookout station used for keeping an eye on the ships ensuring they passed the area in safety. The raised slab with the…
Quintessential plant for this time of year the Holly (European Holly – Ilex aquifolium). Anyone exploring the Tintern Trails at the Abbey would have come across these large holly trees in the depths of the woods and among the hedgerows along the trails. Fossils indicate that the common ancestor of the Ilex plants probably appeared…
Anyone who has ever taken a walk out behind the lighthouse has probably seen this large bay situated to the east of the lighthouse. The name is either an anglicisation from the Irish coinicéar meaning warren or related to the Middle-English word for rabbits, coney. Back in the day country estates were never complete without…
Ever seen these strange brain like reefs at the edges of sandy beaches? Learn more about the collonies of worms that create them.
Pretty shell or tasty snack? You decide. These pretty mollusc shells are a common sight on Irish beaches whether the owner is at home or not.
For the majority of the last two centuries lime was a very important farming and building resource. These strange buildings are part of that story.