Moyrourkan Lough ASSI

Moyrourkan Lough is a large wetland with a diverse range of communities ranging from open water to swamp and fen. Marginal grasslands and carr woodland provide additional habit diversity.

The open waters of the two small lakes support an extensive growth of floating broad-leaved pondweed, with localised yellow water-lily along the margins. A wide range of fen communities surround the lakes. The fen is dominated by bottle sedge and associated species are highly variable ranging from bogbean and water horsetail in the wetter pockets to sweet vernal-grass and Yorkshire-fog in drier areas.

Notable plants, include cowbane, greater tussock-sedge, narrow buckler-fern and the bryophytes Calliergon cordifolium, Sphagnum fimbriatum and Sphagnum squarrosum.

Moyrourkan Lough also supports a notable invertebrate community, including a number of locally distributed species of aquatic Coleoptera (water beetles) such as Dytiscus circumcinctus. The community also contains a number of relict species (isolated remnant of a once-abundant species) indicative of undisturbed rich fens, generally restricted to east and central Ireland.