1898.] 65 



AN ENTOMOI.OGIST AT BAI.IyYBUNION, 



CO. KERRY. 



BY H. K. GORKXUTHBKRT. 



The watering-place of Ballybunion in North Kerry, which 

 I visited in August, 1897, may be considered a spot of more 

 than trifling interest to a naturalist. Lying at the southern 

 corner of the Shannon estuary, close to some of the finest 

 cliflf-scenery in Ireland, there is always a good chance that 

 things of interest may be picked up among its peat-bogs and 

 sand-dunes, or the recesses of its rugged headlands. 



The geology of the district presents several striking features. 

 The village lies at the north-west corner of the plain of 

 Listowel, as described by Mr. F. J. Foot in the Geological 

 Survey Memoir. The following sentences are quoted from 

 this : — " The greatest elevation lying north of the plain is 

 Knockanore Mountain, 880 feet above sea-level. North of 

 Knockanore the ground, rather irregular in form, slopes from 

 880 to 350 feet in one mile and a half. The western slope is 

 the same for the same distance, the ground being then nearly 

 level, till it ends in the picturesque cliffs north of Ballybunion, 

 the average height of these being 140 feet, and the range 100 

 to 200 feet. South of Knockanore the elevation decreases 

 rather abruptly to about 100 feet, and ends next the sea in an 

 undulating series of sand-hills, extending for two miles and a 

 half to the estuary of the Cashen River, the name under which 

 the Feale is known for the last four miles of its course." 



South of the village, from the sand-hills northward, the rocks 

 are Carboniferous limestone, a large reef of this formation pro- 

 jecting from the strand and running far into the sea. It is 

 mainly uncovered at low water, and contains many pools 

 abounding with sea-anemones. The junction of the limestone 

 with the shales and grits forming the Coal-measures, so distinc- 

 tive of North Kerry geology, is well shown just below the 

 ruins of Ballybunion Castle, and these beds form the line of 

 cliffs as far as Dooneen Point, about six miles from the village. 

 They are excessively crumpled and contorted, and have been 

 cut up by the sea into numerous bays. 



