Slieve Russel, Derrylin and Kinawley Landscape

Key Characteristics

• Steep-sided upland rising above low drumlin hills and damp lowland.
• Contrasting land uses including hill and lowland farmland, forest and undisturbed lowland raised bogs.
• Farming characterised by both intensification and dereliction.
• Semi-natural woodlands on the steeper slopes and glens, conifer plantation on hill slopes and small areas of woodland around farms and houses.
• Concentration of housing on lower slopes and lowland.
• Good range of archaeological sites including burial monuments.
• Limestone quarries, gravel pits and processing industries gives part of the area an industrial degraded character.

Landscape Description

This is a complex landscape unit on the southern boundary of Fermanagh. It has contrasting elements of upland and lowland landscape. The area is dominated by Slieve Russel, a small flat-topped isolated block of limestone, sandstone and shales, which rises to 403m. Its steep slopes are dissected by small glens which run down to complex glacial deposits on the lower slopes. The two major summits of Slieve Rushen and Molly Mountain are separated by the Owengarr River. The area also includes the drumlin lowlands and lowland bog to the east and the glacial trough occupied by the Cladagh River. The summit of the mountain is covered by blanket bog, which has been disturbed by peat cutting and erosion. There is a transition from open moor to rush infested rough grazing, which in places has been improved.

Ladder farms are a striking feature of the hillsides and the steeper slopes retain fragments of scrub woodland which blend into the larger conifer plantation of Derrylin Wood. On the lower slopes there is a mosaic of small fields and bushy hedgerows; some are improved and others are cut for hay. Intervening bogs have suffered widespread modification although some, including Moninea Bog, remain intact. The slopes of the uplands are quarried for limestone and sand and gravels are extracted and processed in the Gortmullan area, giving this area an industrialised and degraded character.

The settlement pattern varies with topography; the upland farms often have small modern buildings and are strung out along roads which run perpendicular to the slopes; newer housing is concentrated on the foot slopes around main roads and in the small settlements such as Derrylin, Kinawley and Teemore. Lowland farms are typically small, with groups of farms clustered on each hill. Thatched cottages are a notable feature. There are a number of archaeological sites, including raths, cashels and cairns which are associated both with the uplands and the drumlin hills.

Landscape Condition and Sensitivity to Change

This area is in poor condition owing to the complexity of discordant land uses in a visually prominent area. Further change may help to improve landscape quality if it is designed to provide some unification of this area. The area along the Derrylin to Ballyconnel Road is in a degraded condition owing to the presence of limestone quarries, gravel pits and processing industries. Another large quarry on Molly Mountain is very prominent in views.

Bogs on higher ground have undergone widespread modification through drainage, reclamation and turbary. Some cut-over bogs have been colonised by birch and willow scrub. In the uplands, abandoned fields are rush infested and encroached by scrub, giving an air of degradation and field boundaries are in a poor state of repair. Forestry often forms large regular blocks on prominent ridge-lines, masking the underlying landscape and wind-farms, a radio-mast and the highly visible white access track also detract from the quality of the upland landscape. .

Principles for Landscape Management

• The landscape structure could be improved by tree planting on the hillslopes, using woodlands to unify the landscape and to screen views of the quarries and works. The replanting and management of hedges and trees on the sheltered lower slopes would improve enclosure and unity and avoid the necessity for further wire fences.
• The exposed mountain top of Slieve Rushen is not suitable for forestry.
• Care with the management of turbary rights would help reduce extensive damage to the sensitive moorland of the uplands. A lowlands bog, the Moninea Bog ASSI, should be a priority for conservation.
• The opening of the Shannon-Erne Link may bring an increase in tourism and the waterway landscapes should be a priority for conservation and enhancement.

Principles for Accommodating New Development

• Development is not a feature of the exposed uplands and new development may be accommodated most easily if it is concentrated at villages like Derrylin rather than as a ribbon along roads.
• Development along the Derrylin to Ballyconnell road would not provide attractive accommodation owing to the heavy lorry traffic.