The Inishowen Peninsula is located in the north east of County Donegal and includes Ireland's most northerly point, Malin Head. There is a good variety of habitats in this relatively small area which means many different species of Animals, Birds and Plants can be found.

The habitats range from the rich farmland in the south of the peninsula to mountain and bogland in the centre and north. Inishowen is bounded on the west by Lough Swilly with Lough Foyle to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and this long coastline ranges from mudflats at the inner reaches of the loughs through sandy beaches in the middle reaches to rugged rock and cliff on the Atlantic coast. There are small areas of natural woodland of mainly oak and much larger areas of state conifer forestry. The wetlands of Inch Lake and Blanket Nook are often mentioned in bird books as an important area for Ducks and Geese. Another area often mentioned, surprisingly, is Culmore rubbish dump, south of Muff, where rare seagulls are often seen. The small area of hayfields around Malin head have become very important recently as one of the few places in Ireland where the Corncrake still breeds.

All these different habitats have there own particular community of animal and plant life adapted to the conditions of the habitat, for example Heather grows on acid soil moorland but not on arable farmland. Even within a general habitat there are micro habitats and one species of Heather will grow on wet areas of moorland while another will only grow on dryer areas.

The other pages of this site give an outline of areas of Inishowen with distinctive habitat types and some of the species that can be found there.

Last updated April 2003

Click on the numbers above to link to these pages