Glencullin Lower is an area of open and unplanted blanket bog/wet heath located
on the flanks of a low, but relatively steeply sloping, ridge some 4 kilometres
north of Bangor-Erris village, Co. Mayo. The site comprises 28.6 hectares of
blanket bog, a small portion of which is old cutover surface. Most of the site
area lies within the Carrowmore Lake Complex Special Area of Conservation.
The site is unplanted but it is included within the project in order to explore
the impacts of grazing on blanket bog. The blanket bog shows typical features
of the habitat, including shallow, wet interconnecting surface channels and
vegetation dominated by purple moor-grass (Molinia caerulea), black
bog-rush (Schoenus nigricans), deer-sedge (Trichophorum
cespitosum), cross-leaved heath (Erica tetralix) and lichens
(including Cladonia portentosa). The project site grades upslope
into heath vegetation on shallow peat dominated by ling heather (Calluna
vulgaris) and accompanied by species such as green-ribbed sedge
(Carex binervis) and heath rush (Juncus squarrosus).
Initial observations of the site suggest that this area is recovering from
the effects of overgrazing at present and ecological investigations will
involve the monitoring of the ongoing vegetation recovery at the site.