| Site Type: | Karst |
| Site Status: | ASSI |
| Council area: | Fermanagh District Council |
| Grid Reference: | H0849,H0949,H0948,H0947 |
| Google maps: | 54.39002,-7.87683 |
| Rocks |
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| Rock Age: | Quaternary, Carboniferous (Asbian, Holocene, Visean) |
| Rock Name: | Dartry Limestone Formation, Glenade Sandstone Formation, Glencar Limestone Formation, Knockmore Limestone Member, Meenymore Formation |
| Rock Type: | Limestone |
| Interest |
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| Fossil Groups: | Coral |
| Other interest: | cliff, doline, dry valley, karren, limestone pavement, pothole, sinkhole |
This is an area rich in limestone landscape features, an ideal classroom of karst topography. The limestone pavements around Pollaraftra (Key Site 427) continue along the pronounced bench across the hillside to the area of Noon's Hole. The cherty sediments of the Dartry Limestone give way to the mud limes that characterise the Knockmore Limestone Member, creating variety to the clints and grikes of the pavements. Further interest is added by patches of fossil corals, mostly the colonial branching Siphonodendron species but with some small tooth-shaped genera too. Cliffs, a variety of sink holes, both solution (caused by intense enlargement of closely spaced joints which become unstable) and collapse dolines (formed when the roofs of large caverns directly beneath fall in), a variety of cave entrance types from wide arches to narrow slits and resurgences of underground streams with associated cascades and falls make this a particularly rewarding study area. It was formerly defaced by irresponsible dumping, now largely cleared.
