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The Gearagh () is a submerged Glacial period woodland and nature reserve two kilometres southwest of Macroom, County Cork, in Kilmichael parish, Ireland. It is located at the point where the River Lee descends from the mountains and widens at an alluvial plain, and stretches for roughly five kilometres, bounded by the townlands of Toonsbridge, Illaunmore and Anahala.
It was until recently densely populated with ancient oak trees and the last surviving full oak forest in western Europe. Its Irish name is An Gaorthadh (meaning "the wooded river-valley" or "the river-bed"). Author Seamus O'Donoghue provides another Irish name, An Gaoire, derived from the Irish word Gaorthadh. The area was flooded in 1954 to facilitate the building of two hydro-electric dams in Carrigadrohid and Inniscarra Dam, which provide electricity for the nearby city of Cork. The area is now part of the plants' upper reservoir. The development required the flooding of the region; consequently, hundreds of trees were felled and many people were relocated. Many of the trees were centuries old and had grown since the medieval period.Wood, 136 Today only their stumps survive, in flood land, giving the area a ghostly and almost moon appearance.
Today it comprises wide but shallow water enclosing a series of small islands separated by anastomosis, mostly flat, river streams." The Gearagh". University College Cork. Retrieved 1 May 2016 It remains an area of outstanding natural beauty, with a diverse ecological system and wide variety of plants, birds and fish, including freshwater pearl mussel, Atlantic salmon, , kingfishers and Eurasian otter.
It is designated a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, and also enjoys international protection as an EU Special Area of Conservation of 558 ha. Part of the SAC is designated a nature reserve under the Irish Wildlife Act and the reservoir is a wildfowl sanctuary.
Until the 1950s, it extended as far as the Lee Bridge and consisted of a large number of oak and ash trees.O'Reilly, 279-286 It was gutted in 1954 during the construction of the Lee Valley Hydroelectricity plant, which necessitated extensive tree-felling and flooding. The trees, many of which were over many centuries old, were cut down and residents were relocated.Browne, Bill. " Damning film lifts lid on River Lee 'tragedy'". Irish Independent, 8 November 2014. Retrieved 1 May 2016 Now submerged houses are visible from the area around Two Mile Bridge. The scheme resulted in the loss of sixty percent of the former oak woodland.
Local folklore associates the area with the Meascan Maraiocht, mischievous spirits that would deliberately confuse and lead visitors astray.Monk, Michael. "Early Medieval Munster: Archaeology, History and Society". Cork: Cork University Press, 1998. O'Donoghue, 6
The area has been the focus of significant heritage and conservation efforts, especially by environmental biologist and conservationist Kevin Corcoran. He observed that before the dam was built "this was the last pure stand of ancient riverine forest that had survived intact since the last ice age. This was just one of four such systems on the whole planet." Describing the Gearagh as of "immense" importance, Corcoran observed in a later interview how it is "hard to imagine what the area looked like before being flooded – a vast inland delta of inter-connecting, many branched streams that encircled a maze of small and inaccessible islands, covered in oak forest. It was protected from the ravages of humanity by its swampy terrain, deep swirling streams and treacherous banks of soft mud with holes big enough to swallow a horse."Teskey, Donal. " Nature Reserve – Solo exhibition – Art First, London & Town Hall Gallery, Macroom, Co. Cork". donaldteskey.com. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
According to filmmaker Declan O’Mahony, "If the water level was permanently dropped,The water level is controlled by the buttress dam at Inniscarra the Gearagh would grow back and has the full potential to become a world heritage site on a par with Newgrange, the Giant’s Causeway and The Burren". (The Burren is not actually a World Heritage Site, although it has been put forward as a candidate.).O'Mahony, Kieran. " Gearagh delta is as important as Newgrange and the Burren". The Southern Star, 21 October 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2016
The Gearagh was declared a statutory nature reserve in 1987, under the protection of the Wildlife Act, but owned by the ESB Group.
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