Lough McCall ASSI

Lough McCall is of special scientific interest because of its wetland flora and fauna. Although relatively small, it is a diverse area with several wetland plant communities ranging from fen vegetation to swamp and open water. A wide range of wetland plants occur, some of which are scarce. In addition, the invertebrate community is important for its overall diversity and includes species which have a restricted distribution within the United Kingdom.

The open waters of Lough McCall are mesotrophic (relatively low in plant nutrients) and contain a range of aquatic plants such as broad-leaved pondweed. The eastern shore of the lough is partially fringed by a narrow band of bottle sedge and water horsetail.Lough McCall is a transitional mire which is comprised of a mosaic of base-rich fen, base-poor fen and scrub. The fen vegetation surrounding the northern and western shores of the lough is predominantly base-rich. The vegetation here is characterised by the dominance of bottle sedge and water horsetail with a rich herb cover. Sedges of note include lesser tussock-sedge and greater tussock-sedge. Herbs include marsh cinquefoil, bogbean, marsh speedwell, skullcap and wild Angelica. These species grow over a carpet of brown mosses dominated by pointed spear-moss and heart-leaved spear-moss. Along the southern shore of the lough, where there is a more acidic influence, there are pockets of base-poor fen. The fen vegetation is much more acidic in composition and is characterised by the presence of a thick carpet of spiky bog-moss with occasional blunt-leaved bog-moss. Over this carpet of bryophytes there is a mixed sedge sward with a good cover of herbs. This includes white sedge, bottle sedge, Devil's-bit scabious, common cottongrass and marsh cinquefoil.
A small area of wet heath is situated at the most southerly point of the area and is dominated by purple moor-grass with heather, cross-leaved heath and bilberry. Scattered herbs include tormentil and common cottongrass.

Further habitat diversity is provided by areas of scrubby woodland which occur around the periphery of the lough. Alder, downy birch and willow dominate, with occasional hawthorn and rowan.

In addition to the species listed above, the area supports a number of notable plants, such as creeping forget-me-not and bay willow. Lough McCall supports a rich wetland invertebrate community, which includes several notable species. There is a large colony of the rare Irish damselfly. Within the United Kingdom this species is only found in Northern Ireland and occurs on sheltered mesotrophic loughs and large pools on cutover bogs. Several notable water beetles have also been recorded including Agabus unguicularis, Stictonectes lepidus, Cercyon convexiusculus and Hydroporus scalesianus, which is a relict fen species. The site is especially notable for the ground bug Scolopostethus puberulus which has only one previous Irish record.

Site Related Documents

Site map (.PDF 640Kb), Citation document (.PDF 125Kb) and Views about Management document (.PDF 68Kb).