Aughnadarragh Lough SAC

This area has been designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) because it contains habitat types and/or species which are rare or threatened within a European context. The interests for which the site was selected as ASSI may differ from the interests selected in a European context.

The marsh fritillary butterfly frequents damp meadows and, more rarely, chalk grassland, where its larvae feed on devil’s-bit scabious Succisa pratensis.

It has declined and is now extinct from the eastern half of its former range in the UK (except where it has been reintroduced) and has shown a similar decline throughout Europe.  The UK, Ireland and the Iberian peninsula are now its most important strongholds.