Vol. 52.] THE KILDARE IXLIER. 587 



34. The Kildare Inlier. By S. H. Reynolds, Esq., M.A., F.G.S. 

 and C. I. Gardiner, Esq., M.A., F.G.S. (Read May 27th, 1896.) 



[Plate XXVIII.] 



Contexts. 



I. Introduction 5gy 



II. General Description of the Area " 58-7 



III. The Sedimentary Rocks of Grange Hill and the Chair of 



Kildare 5gg 



IV. Dunmurry and Grange Clare Hills 595 



V. Summary of Conclusions as regards the Sedimentary Rocks. 595 



VI. The Igneous Rocks of Grange Hill 5% 



VII. The Hill of Allen ...'.'.'.".'.'*...'.'.'.".'.'.'.' 600 



VITI. Summary of Conclusions as regards the Igneous Rocks ... 603 

 IX. General Conclusion and Summary 604 



I. Introduction. 



The Geological Survey of Ireland, in 1858, published a memoir 

 describing the geology of the Kildare Hills and neighbouring 

 country. In this memoir are given lists of fossils from the lime- 

 stone and from an underlying ash-bed, attention is drawn to the 

 resemblance which some of the igneous rocks bear to those of 

 Lambay Island, and reference is made to the presence of a north- 

 and-south fault dividing the inlier into two portions. 



In 1877 Messrs. Harkness and Nicholson, 1 in their paper on 

 'the Strata between the Borrowdale Series and Coniston Flags,' give 

 some account of the Kildare rocks. They mention that the lime- 

 stone is in the direct line of strike of contemporaneous beds at 

 Portraine, near .Dublin, and also of the Coniston Limestone of the 

 Lake District. Moreover they judge from the strike of the Kildare 

 limestone that it is faulted against the rocks east of it, and note 

 that the beds west of the north-and-south fault above mentioned 

 are entirely dissimilar to those lying east of it. 



The area has been repeatedly referred to by Mr. J. E. Marr 2 in 

 his various papers on the Coniston Limestone Series of the Lake 

 District. In them he draws special attention to the resemblance 

 between the Keisley Limestone and that of the Chair of Kildare. 



II. General Description oe the Area. 



The Carboniferous Limestone to the south-west of Dublin has 

 been thrown into a series of gentle undulations, and to the north 

 and north-west of the town of Kildare the crest of one of these 

 undulations has been denuded away, exposing a strip of pre- 

 Carboniferous rocks. The inlier thus 'formed is some 6 miles long, 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxiii. (1877) p. 481 



2 Geol. Mag. 1892, pp. 97 et seqq. 



Q.J.G.S. No. 208. 2 s 



