Introduction
The Republic of Ireland has an area of 70,282 sq. km, and consists of a large Central Lowland (generally less than 120 m above sea level) bordered by a hilly and mountainous coastal fringe. The coastline is controlled by the influence of several major geological structures, notably the NE-SW Caledonian structures in the northwest of the island and the E-W Armorican structures in the south. Mountain ranges and deep valleys following these trends culminate in long peninsulas and bays on the Atlantic coast in the northwest and southwest, the limestones of the interior extending to the central coast in Galway. The south coast runs parallel to the Armorican trend in County Cork, and the southeast and east coasts are hilly with some valley-mouth lowlands (Davies and Stephens 1978).
In the W and NW are Pre-Cambrian schists and gneisses similar to those of the Scottish Highlands; in the NE are Ordovician and Silurian rocks like those of the Southern Uplands of Scotland and in the...
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(2010). Ireland. In: Bird, E.C.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8639-7_95
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