THE HISTORY OF BOG SLIDES

New Zealand Tablet, 10 March 1910, Page 372

THE HISTORY OF BOG SLIDES

. ■ A cable message under date March 4 states that the J “ ™ . hav ® caused a bog slide at Castlerea, RosJh““roos h Tb« C l OSII -f !f Upon the houses and destroying Rtnpk n,?rf*fl o .i T + h / er V iie J d occupants have released their as possible J land Wlth &S much P ersonal Property In the year 1697 the first known phenomenon of a ioss V o I fl, b fp S a to rT jk PlaCe ; Happily > the instances of serious been few! d property accompanying such disasters have ,9 June 7, 1697, Capanahane Bog, near Charleville rand h sliD 0rderS f Limer ! 1 ck 1 and Cork > was the scene of a +V.I +ff P ‘ Y was ■ preceded by a subterranean noise. To nartlv Sn°Ll! the habitants, a huge stretch of bog land, ?_ ar meadows and pasture, began at about seven o’clock ? evening to rise with a wave-like motion to a great height, and, moving along with great violence, completely covered a meadow to a depth of sixteen feet, r ■ ! il6 , re was a disastrous landslip at Castlegarde, County L mermk, on December 14, 1708, when Poulenard Bog, about a mile long and a quarter of a mile broad, and 20 IntlTnU" in a body along a valley and buried three houses containing twenty-one persons. It traversed several miles, crossed the high road at Boon, threw down two bridges, and poured into Coolnapish Lough. -iac '.next recorded instance of a moving bog is that of the disaster in 1743 at , Addergoole, County Galway. In March, 888, 45 years later, the bog of Monabaughf near Dundium, County Tippeary, became agitated, and, after a rumbling sound, moved towards Golden, overspreading and laying waste over two miles and a half of a fine tract or country, burying in ruins everything that opposed its progress. It eventually entered the Suir. PP Probably the most disastrous landslip that occurred in isioVi Wa -n t lat of Owenmore, County Mayo. In January, 1819, the village was suddenly overwhelmed by a large mass ot bog, which, like an avalanche from the neighboring heights, came down and completely enveloped the inhabitants «i the district. A writer of the period says • * In consequence of the continued rain, a mountain tarn burst its banks, and, bearing the bog that confined it, came down like a liquid wall, sweeping everything along till it broke upon the houses, carrying all before it, stones, timber, and bodies, and it was some days after at the estuary of the found l,n oban Ba J> the bodies of the poor people were In 1821 King s County and Galway were visited About seven o clock in the evening of the 26th June the south front of the bog of Ballykillion, near Clara, gave way to the depth of 25 feet, and after creating a tremendous noise, moved at the rate of about two yards an hour down the valley. The bog, two hundred yards wide, flowed over three miles, and completely destroyed a hundred acres of valuable land. The cause in this instance was pent-up water in-the interior of the bog. In its motion it created a mighty convulsion, accompanied by a noise I l k © thunder, and the earth burst, and a torrent of bogstuff issued forth. The bog moved for more than a month and it was estimated that 2500 acres were in motion. The Ferret bog in the same neighborhood was about the same month we are told strongly agitated, boiling up to a great height. _ In September of the same year a big landslip occurred in the Joyce country. County Galway. A tract of a hundred acres, which was covered with crops and with many houses inhabited, rising to a height, moved along leaving the whole route a complete waste. On December 2, 1824, a large portion of the bog of Ballywindland, near Coleraine, gave way and passed into an adioinalley where it destroyed over eighty acres of land. In March, 1848, during a gale the bog, which for years had been accumulating in the centre of a lake near the city of Cork, moved steadily, until it came to the old Kinsale road. In 1853, Inaghmonmore, County Clare, was the scene of a bog disaster. The bog was undermined by heavy rams whmh formed a regular lake. The mass of peat was lifted bodily over an adjacent hill-top, and sent tumbling and rolling sluggishly along for twenty-four hours before level ground checked its course. A like disaster happened at Dunmore bog, where much cultivated land adjoining was destroyed. Some few years ago at Castleconnell, County Limerick, a bog partly got out on the public road; some years later that part of the borders of Cork and Kerry known as Knocknageeba Bog near Killarney, gave way. A vast flood of peat rushed along with startling rapidity, swept away the stone-built house of Donnelly, Lord Kenmare’s quarry steward, and Donnelly and his wife and six children perished. On that occasion the bog moved for five days and covered twelve miles of country with peaty slime. A serious bog-slide occurred near the scene of the present trouble in 1904. There wasa very serious bog-slide near Kilmore, Galway, about two years ago, when a large area of arable land was destroyed and several houses were demolished. A bog may be set in motion by different causes A peat bog thirty or forty feet deep, resting on a slope, is not of equal solidity all through. It has a solid crust, but the interior is often fluid or half fluid. After great rains

such a bog may swell and burst its crust and discharge its contents of liquid black mud. These things nearly always happen when drought is followed by heavy rain.