Slieve Beagh ASSI

Slieve Beagh is the third largest area of blanket bog in Northern Ireland. The intact bog exhibits a range of notable structural features such as occasional well developed hummocks and lawn complexes, a few localised pool complexes, as well as soakways and flushes.

It is thought that the origin of pools may be as a result of shelling practice in the Second World War. The peatland complex comprise of a series of raised and soligenous peat bog units, and a number of oligotrophic water bodies, all within the enveloping bog mantle. The bog vegetation is characterised by Sphagnum mosses, ericoid dwarf-shrubs and sedges, the abundance of each being dependent upon the local edaphic conditions, in particular the water table and relief.

Flat, waterlogged ground is characterised by the presence of such species as cross-leaved heath, cranberry, bog asphodel and common cottongrass, over a lush Sphagnum moss mat of predominantly Sphagnum papillosum with occasional Sphagnum magellanicum.

On more freely draining slopes heather, bilberry, and hare's tail cottongrass are more typical over a bryophyte mat. The presence of weak flushing of acidic water through the surface peat layer is indicated by the occurrence of purple moor-grass or sharp-flowered rush. Where flushing is concentrated over thinner peats or on peaty gley soils, the vegetation is characterised by a small sedge community where yellow-sedge, carnation sedge and star sedge, while the presence of tawny sedge, Dioecious sedge and flea sedge.

The peatland flora consists of a number of rare and unusual species including cowberry and the mosses Sphagnum fuscum and Sphagnum imbricatum.

The most notable species are found in the highest lake, Lough Sallagh, where the rare upland beetle Potamonectes griseostriatus and corixid Glaenocorisa propinqua are found. The natural acid flushes and the shallow pools with the many bog bursts support a number of species including the local water beetles Agabas guttatus and Stictonectes lepidus.
The area supports a breeding population of red grouse and is regularly used throughout the year by golden plover and hen harrier.