County Limerick

Birding County Limerick

Limerick is a city and the county seat of County Limerick in the province of Munster, in the midwest of Ireland. The city lies on the River Shannon, with three main crossing points near the city centre and has a 2006 population of 91,000 inhabitants within the Limerick urban area and is one of the constituent cities of the Cork-Limerick-Galway corridor with a population of 1 million people.Limerick is at the centre of the Midwest region. It is situated 195 km west of Dublin and is equidistant at 105 km from the cities of Cork to the south and Galway to the north.

One possible meaning for the county’s name in Irish Luimneach is “the flat area”; this description is accurate as the land consists mostly of a fertile limestone plain. Moreover, the county is ringed by mountains: the Slieve Felims to the northeast, the Galtees to the southeast, the Ballyhoura Mountains to the south, and the Mullaghareirk Mountains to the southwest and west. The highest point in the county is located in its south-east corner at Galtymore (919 m), which separates Limerick from County Tipperary. The county is not a simply a plain, its topography consists of hills and ridges. The eastern part of the county is part of the Golden Vale, which is well known for dairy produce and consists of rolling low hills. This gives way to very flat land around the centre of the county, with the exception being Knockfierna at 288 m high. Towards the west, the Mullaghareirk Mountains (Mullach an Radhairc in Irish, roughly meaning “mountains of the view”) push across the county offering extensive views east over the county and west into County Kerry.Tributaries of the Shannon drainage basin located in the county include the rivers Mulcair, Loobagh, Maigue, Camogue, Morning Star, Deel, and the Feale.