304 turloughs listed in the Geological Survey Ireland Karst Database (2006)
Extend along the Western region of Ireland, from Co. Donegal to Co. Cork, with clusters of turloughs occurring in Co. Clare, Co. Galway, Co. Mayo and Co. Roscommon.
Includes site reports and maps for 22 turloughs studied in detail
Notes:
NPWS project investigated a relatively small number of turloughs (22 for most aspects of the project, and 8 sites for the invertebrate work)
For locations of turlough sites which might potentially end up being impacted e.g. by OPW drainage, a better source of information is the Geological Survey of Ireland karst database, which has national mapping of karst features including turloughs.
This is available to view online on their Groundwater Data Viewer at https://dcenr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=bc0dba38f3f5477c8fd400f66b5eedcd
The turloughs are shown within the Groundwater Karst Data layer with a capital T inside a box. This dataset is also available for download from a link at https://www.gsi.ie/en-ie/data-and-maps/Pages/Groundwater.aspx#KarstFeatures
There are more than 300 turloughs in the database (unknown how many of them have been ground-truthed and verified)
Summary of threats to Turlough SACs
Adjacent quarry impact on hydrology
Fertiliser and grazing by sheep and cattle
Housing development and septic tanks
Overwintering of horses
Farm run off and slurry
Drainage, land reclamation and reseeding
Road widening
Enrichment from abattoir
Enrichment from intensive dairy farms
OPW drainage
Drainage and peat cutting
Soil excavation / turlough basin scraped out / permanent pond deepened