What is the Bog of Allen, and where can I see bog heritage in County Kildare?
The Bog of Allen is the great raised bog of the Irish midlands, spread across Kildare, Offaly, Laois and Westmeath: thousands of years of sphagnum moss laid down as peat, cut for fuel for centuries and now recognised as a store of carbon and a rare habitat. Kildare holds its eastern edge. Lullymore Heritage Park, near Rathangan, is the visitor's way in, with a peatlands exhibition and a boardwalk over the bog itself. Pollardstown Fen shows the wetter cousin, spring-fed rather than rain-fed. Around Rathangan you will still see turf stacks and cutaway bog in the fields; the working bog landscape is part of the county's look, not a backdrop.
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