Bog of Allen

John O’Hart

Irish Pedigrees; or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation

1892 (5th Edition)

The Bog of Allen is chiefly situated in Kildare, but it also extends into the King’s and Queen’s counties, and partly into Westmeath; and is estimated to contain about three hundred thousand acres.[1] It is, like the other bogs of Ireland, composed chiefly of the remains of ancient forests of oak, pine, yew, hazel, birch, alder, mountain-ash, and poplar; and the vast quantity of bogs in Ireland shows the great extent of the forests in former times, and hence one of the ancient names of Ireland was Fiodh-Inis, signifying the “Woody Island.”

Notes

[1] Acres: We read that in the reign of the Irish Monarch, King Cormac MacArt, the site of the Bog of Allen was covered by an extensive forest.

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