VEGETATION DEVELOPMENT IN THE GLENDALOUGH VALLEY, EASTERN IRELAND OVER THE LAST 15,000 YEARS

Ireland has good coverage of late Quaternary pollen sites but they are concentrated in the west and north. This paper presents the first full late-glacial and Holocene record from eastern Leinster. It charts vegetation development over the last 15,000 years in the Glendalough Valley. Late-glacial vegetation development shows close correlation to western sites and sampling resolution is sufficient to register short but significant deviations in the pollen record. Anthropogenic impact on the landscape is not evident until the late Neolithic (c. 5,400 cal BP), which contrasts with earlier activity in the west and north which was followed by a lull. This geographical difference in anthropogenic activity may have been influenced by an east-west precipitation gradient. Once established, anthropogenic activity continued to have an increasing influence on the landscape. The establishment of an early Christian monastic site followed by iron smelting in the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries and then lead mining in the nineteenth century had significant impacts on the vegetation.This work provides useful context for the contemporary vegetation communities in the Glendalough valley which currently forms the core of the Wicklow Mountains National Park.