Garron Plateau SAC

The Garron Plateau is a basaltic headland area undulating to a maximum height of 440 m but generally lying between 330 and 380 m with scarps to Glenariff Glen and the Antrim coast and a gentler descent inland.  The Upper Basalts predominate with limited exposure of the Lower Basalts. 

Notable features include flow-banded porphyritic lava’s at Trosk.  The blanket bog, which covers much of the plateau, is the largest intact bog in Northern Ireland.  Peat depth is variable and consequently the peatland structure is highly diverse with hummock, lawn and pool complexes on the deepest peats grading into large expenses of blanketing peats on low gradients to heathland communities on the steepest and more exposed slopes. Several lakes, on site have characteristically nutrient poor waters with some conforming to EU ‘Habitats Directive’ Annex I types.  Elsewhere locally mineral enriched flushing provides the alkaline fens priority habitat, and in hollows on the wetter more level parts of the blanket bog, the influence of mineral rich water provides the transition mires and quaking bog systems.  The bog is well known for rare plant species from various represented habitats, including the Marsh saxifrage Saxifraga hirculus from a linear flush.