Ballynahone Bog

Ballynahone Bog (from Irish Baile na hAbhann, meaning 'townland of the river') is a raised bog, situated in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, about 3 km south of Maghera, on low-lying ground immediately north of the Moyola River about 14 km from its mouth at Lough Neagh. It is one of the largest lowland raised bogs in Northern Ireland.

The raised bog which covers most of the site contains characteristic vegetation and structural features associated with this type of habitat such as bog pools and hummocks. The raised bog dome is surrounded by cut-over bog with poor fen and birch woodland.

Peat found here was made by decayed branches and leaves of trees and plants. The extraction of this peat was first made by the UPW. Locals who were against the extraction set up the FFB in 1990. In the end the area was declared an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) after successful petitioning by the FFB and Friends of the Earth.

The bog vegetation features a high percentage cover of sphagnum mosses, ericoid dwarf-shrubs such as cross-leaved heath Erica tetralix and heather Calluna vulgaris, and other associated species such as hare's-tail cottongrass Eriophorum vaginatum, common cottongrass Eriophorum angustifolium, deergrass Trichophorum cespitosum and sundew species Drosera. Additional species, also well represented within the bog include Bog Asphodel Narthecium ossifragum and White Beak-sedge Rhynchospora alba, with occasional patches of Bog-myrtle Myrica gale also occurring.

The Ballynahone Bog Ramsar site (wetlands of international importance designated under the Ramsar Convention), is 243.24 hectares in area, at Latitude 54 49 25 N and Longitude 06 39 40 W. It was designated a Ramsar site on 31 December 1998. The site qualifies under criterion 1a of the Ramsar Convention by being a particularly good representative example of lowland raised bog. It is one of the two largest intact active bogs in Northern Ireland with hummock and hollow pool complexes and represents one of the best examples of this habitat type in the United Kingdom.

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