Garry Bog RAMSAR

Garry Bog is situated in County Antrim Northern Ireland. The raised bog which covers most of the site exhibits the full range of characteristic vegetation and structural features associated with this type of habitat and is surrounded by cut-over bog with poor fen.

The site qualifies under criterion 1a of the Ramsar Convention by being a particularly good representative example of lowland raised bog. In western Europe most of the relatively intact raised bogs occur in the UK and Ireland. This site is one of the largest intact active bogs in Northern Ireland with hummock and hollow pool complexes and represents one of the best examples of this habitat type in the UK.

The raised bog features a pool and hummock complex with an extensive Sphagnum-rich bryophyte carpet and occasional hummocks of Sphagnum imbricatum and Sphagnum fuscum occur. The pools support a characteristic growth of aquatic Sphagnum mosses with frequent stands of bogbean in the deeper pools. Their margins support extensive growth of the rare Sphagnum pulchrum.

The surrounding water-logged lawns of bog asphodel support an abundance of white beak-sedge, interspersed with low Sphagnum papillosum hummocks. The raised bog surrounding the pool system is characterised by a greater abundance of dwarf-shrubs, particularly heather and cross-leaved heath over a Sphagnum-rich bryophyte carpet.
Bog asphodel and white beak-sedge are still prominent in the sward, together with common cottongrass, hare's-tail cottongrass and deergrass.

Most of the lagg surrounding the bog has been cut for turf, creating a mosaic of water-logged cuttings at different levels, separated by elevated ramparts. The water-logged cuttings are dominated by cross-leaved heath, with deergrass and common cottongrass over a dense Sphagnum moss carpet. The ramparts are much drier and are dominated by rank
heather with frequent patches of the cushion - forming lichen Cladonia portentosa.