The Drainage Pattern

The Lee Basin: Part 2, the Drainage Pattern
Author(s): A. Farrington
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section B: Biological, Geological, and
Chemical Science, Vol. 61 (1960/1961), pp. 233-253
Published by: Royal Irish Academy
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20494830
Accessed: 19-08-2017 07:24 UTC
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[ 233 ]
14.
THE LEE BASIN: PART 2, THE DRAINAGE PATTERN.
By A. FARRINGTON.
(PLATE XIII.)
[Read 9 MAY, 1960. Published 17 FEBRUARY, 1961.]
SUMMARY.
THE morphology of the Lee Basin is described and a method of approach

to the drainage problems is suggested. It is shown that the South Ireland
Peneplane in this area is one of sub-aerial erosion. The drainage of the
Peneplane is reconstructed and the history of the development of the present
pattern is discussed. Attention is directed to the effects produced by the
rapid erosion of the Carboniferous limestone in contrast with the resistant
Old Red Sandstone. The part played by isostatic uplift is discussed.
INTRODUCTION.
In the first part of this study (Farrington, 1959) most attention was given
to the glacial phenomena. It appeared, however, from the description of
the course of the river, that although the Lee is a strike subsequent in
relation to the major structure of the area it is maladjusted in detail.
Numerous instances were given where the river cut transversely across the
Old Red Sandstone ridges. Perhaps more striking as evidence of imperfect
adjustment is the reach east of Inchigeelagh where the river flows for two
miles across the structure at a small angle: or even more notable, the long
section from Rooves Bridge to Inishcarra where the valley, turning out of
a syncline floored with limestone, takes a wandering course across a denuded
anticline of sandstone (Plate XIII).
The more one studies the course of the valley the more one does become
convinced that the present drainage, although broadly in agreement with
the east-west pattern of the topography, is superimposed on the rock structure
on which it now flows. Indeed, as was recognised by Jukes (1861), it is the
Bride, which keeps to the main syncline, that is better adjusted than the Lee
which avoids it.
This part of the discussion is devoted to the development of the drainage
and of the present land surface.
PROC. R.I.A., VOL 61, SECT. B. [2 MI
234 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE LEE BASIN.
The basin of the Lee, as far as the entry of the combined waters of the
Sullane and the Laney, lies within the area of the West Cork Mountains.
The upper slopes of the Derrynasaggart and Boggeragh Mountains
exhibit an extensive surface of low relief. This is particularly well seen on
the Derrynasaggarts where the gently rolling suimmit levels are in sharp
contrast with the steep middle slopes. The Derrynasaggart and the
Caherbarnagh Mountains join in an upland that has the aspect of a very
wide valley approaching old age. The slopes are smooth and the maximumi
relief along a line of two miles is less than 250 feet. The bottom of the valley
is at 1280 feet and there are wide areas at little Inor-e than 1300 feet.
Where the ground rises to greater altitudes, as at Mullaghanish (2133')
the slopes are always even. At the eastern end of the Boggeragh Mountains
Mossy Bed has a wide plateau-like summit at about 1200 feet and there are
other broad and level ridges at the same height. From this surface the ridge
which culminates in Musheramore (2118') rises abruptly like a monadnock.
Below this gently rolling upland the sides of the mountains fall steeply
until the surface which Miller (1939) has called the South Ireland Peneplane
is reached. This surface meets the Boggeragh Mountains at about 700 feet.
At least this is the height at which the steep slopes of the mountains begin
to flatten out. There is clear indication of a broad bench between 700 and
600 feet.
No other surfaces of any great extent can be found, although Miller
(1939) considers that there is evidence of bevelling at about 200 feet, and
Martin (1952) shows on his map discontinuous surfaces at 300, 200 and
100 feet. Within the valley, at least, these surfaces are formed by the
glacial gravel terraces (Farrington, 1959).
In the main valley of the Lee, from Buingea Bridge to Inishcarra, the
river runs in a trench. This is particularly well marked from Rooves Bridge
to Inishcarra. On the south side of the valley the hill slopes rise fairly
steeply and steadily to about 500 feet, some 300 feet above the top of the
trench. On the north side the trench is separated by a low rise from the
Blarney-Coachford syncline. This rise has summits at a little over 300 feet,
and on the north side of the syncline the intercepts between the 300 foot
and 400 foot contours are exceptionally broad. That this broadening
represents a stage in the erosion of the basin is indicated by the gentle slopes
above and the sudden steepening below it.
On the south side of the river, between Lissardagh gap and Rooves
Bridge there is another extensive area between 300 and 400 feet which is
probably connected with the surface mientioned above. This feature is
developed on rock while the flats occurring at about 200 feet and 100 feet
are, at least, in part, on drift (see above).
There are two other places where broad surfaces occur within the valley.
The more remarkable is the Annahalla depression which contains the Gearagn.
This begins about a mile above the junction of the Lee and the Sullane.
FARRINGToN-The Lee Basin: Part 2, The Drainage Pattern. 235
There is much gravel in the eastern part, below the junction of the Lee with
the Toon, so that the exact form of the bottom of the hollow is not known;
but, with the exception of a low ridge of limestone in the middle, which
rises to 250 feet, the limits of the relief of this two-mile-wide hollow lie
between 200 and 220 feet. At the western end, where the rock is well exposed,
the bottom is seen to be an irregular surface of low relief. The drift-covered
part is underlaid by limestone and the western end, which is the valley of
the Toon, is underlaid by Old Red Sandstone.
The other broad surface lies farther upstream between the transverse
reaches at Dromcarra and Coolroe. Here the level varies slightly above and
below 300 feet. This portion of the Lee valley is extremely puzzling. At
Lough Allua there is a broad expansion of the valley, as far as the village
of Inchigeelagh, which shows many signs of glacial scour (Farrington, 1959).
Below the village the river is slightly entrenched in a rough and fairly steep
rocky bed with a fall of 20 feet in a mile. The direction is at a slight angle
to the strike. The river then turns south across the strike to flow for half a
mile in broad, mature valley. At Coolroe it turns to slightly north of east
along the strike towards Dromcarra, running in a slight trench at the
northern side of the broadening of the valley mentioned above. At Dromcarra
the river turns north across the strike in a valley even more mature than
that at Coolroe, even though a riffle of rock crosses the stream. The broad
surface through which the river flows between Coolroe and Dromcarra
cannot be equated with those previously mentioned lying east of Lissardagh
as it lies considerably lower although it is several miles farther upstream.
The mature transverse valleys at Coolroe and Dromcarra are not easily
explained. They cannot be portions of former consequent streams, for they
are cut through subsidiary ridges while the main ridges lying north and south
of them at higher levels show no traces of such streams. The directions of
these transverse valleys are parallel to a common direction of faulting in the
region. No faults are recorded at these places but they would not be very
obvious in the rough topography of this area where the rocks are all very
similar. Detailed structural mapping might well reveal faults.
METHOD.
In geomorphological studies an approach to a problem in drainage

patterns is frequently made by assuming the existence of a high level surface
upon which a system of streams is postulated. The arrangement of these
hypothetical streams is guided by, among other things, the disposition of
the present streams in the same general area; although these may lie hundreds
or even thousands of feet below the level of the assumed surface. This
method is avoided here. Because of the highly folded nature of the rocks
it is not considered justifiable to assume that streams that have certain
courses today are necessarily decendants of ancestral streams which might
have had courses with similar directions. It has been suggested, for instance,
that in the South of Ireland the rivers, Feale, Deel and Maigue, the valleys
of which lie for the most part below 200 feet in an area where there is buxt
little relief, are direct descendants of consequent streams flowing on a surface
lying at a level of about 3000 feet (Whittow, 1958). If there were streamns
on such a surface the direction of their flow might well have been altered
more than once during the erosion of 3000 feet of strata from a highly
folded area; particularly when it is likely that unknown thicknesses of
unconformable covering are also involved.
In this study an attempt will be made to carry the existing stream pattern
back only one step; first to try to establish the probable drainage pattern
on the South Ireland Peneplane and from that to derive the present drainage
pattern and to work out this small part of its history. It is the difficulty in
coming to any definite conclusions in even such a small step that has
convinced the author that to attempt to carry the history any farther back
is to work so largely by iniagination that, for lack of observed facts, the basis
of scientific discussion hardly exists.
Before discussing the development of the drainage of the Lee basin it
is essential that an attempt should be made to reconstruct the geology of
the surface of the South Ireland Peneplane and to try to establish the
pattern of the drainage at that time.
It is apparent that the Lee is not well adjusted to the details of the
stnture of the Old Red Sandstone and it may well have been superimposed
from some overlying stratum. As the vertical distance between the South
Ireland Peneplane and the present surface is so small it is extremely unlikely
that any formation foreign to the present geology could have formed a
covering layer. But it is. most probable that the Carboniferous beds in the
area were once more extensive.
The Hercynian folds of the south of Ireland are not a series of simple
anticlines and synclines. Parallel to the main folding there is much minor
folding and crushing. Even in such narrow bands as the exposures of Lower
Carboniferous Shale small anticlines and synclines may be seen. In the
Memoir to the sheets 185, 186 .of the Geological Survey (Jukes, 1861) it is
stated that the thickness of the Lower Carboniferous Shale and the Upper
Old Red Sandstone are, respectively, 250 and 450 feet. Taking these figures
and using the dips given on the published maps of the Geological Survey
it is possible to reconstruct the section given in Figf1. Here it will be seen
that while at the present surface 40%/0 of the section is occupied by
Carboniferous rocks at 700 feet this proportion rises to over 60%, and at
- 1300 FEEZT
*:E N T. PRESENT SUFACE

~IEL. I- /I I I. *:*. I .I
Bride Valley ' Lee Valley Cork Anticline Ardrum Syncline
FIG. l.-Geological section across the valleys of the rivers Bride and Lee
just east of Inishcarra gorge.
FARRINGTON-The Lee Basin: Part 2, The Drainage Pattern. 237
1300 feet to over 90%/,. If one allows for the many minor folds the proportion
of the Carboniferous strata at 700 feet might well be greatly increased.
It is likely, then, that at this level, i.e. the level of the South Ireland
Peneplane, it would be possible to realise conditions that would allow the
development on Carboniferous rocks of, at least, the main stream and the
lower parts of the tributaries of the Lee, with later superposition onto the
underlying Old Red Sandstone.
Too little remains of the upper surface, that at 1200 feet, to enable one
to do more than record its existence. It may have been on that surface that
the consequent drainage from which the present pattern developed was
initiated, but there is not sufficient evidence to attempt even the vaguest
reconstruction of that drainage. Jukes (1862) puts his initial consequent
drainage at over 2000 feet, which in the point of view put forward in this
paper (see p. 236) is much too remote from the present surface. Miller
(1939) places his initial consequent drainage on the surface of the South
Ireland Peneplane which, in the area under discussion, is too close to the
present surface to permit the major changes of drainage pattern that would
be required. It will be shown that in the Lee basin at the level of the South
Ireland Peneplane a general adjustment to the Hercynian structure was
already established.
THE SOUTH IRELAND PENEPLANE.
The inner edge of the South Ireland Peneplane in the Lee basin is
determined by the sharp change of slope occurring at about 700 feet on
the eastern and southern slopes respectively of the Derrynasaggart and the
Boggeragh Mountains. This is clearly seen on the map (Plate XIII). A heavy
line shows the 600 feet contour and this brings out clearly the suggestion of
a gently inclined surface which has suffered such severe erosion as to be
almost destroyed. The run of this contour draws attention to a broad bench
extending from the break of slope. Here and there outlying closed contours
at this level show where the surface formerly extended. What little rem-ains
suggests that the surface sloped gently to the south-east, and if one considers
the outlying summits to be parts of the surface then the slope is likely to
have been less than 25 feet to a mile. This was not, of course, the original
slope as there is some evidence of tilting. 'It must be remembered also that
the reconstruction of the geology of the surface shows that much of the lower
ground was at that time composed of limestone or shale so that the apparenit
continuation of the surface along the sandstone interfluves down to 500
feet and below, without any break of slopes, may not be a part of the
peneplane. Anything below 500 feet may have been revealed since that
period by the erosion of the Carboniferous cover.
It is likely that at the time of the South Ireland Peneplane the Lee had
established itself in a subsequent depression parallel to the main lines of the'
regional rock structure. Plate XIII shows prominent east-west ridges lying over
600 feet and seems to establish that this was so and that the erosion surface
died out among the hills. Accordingly the South Ireland Peneplane in this
area cannot have been a plane of marine erosion. Miller (1939 and 1955),
influenced by the very impressive development of the peneplane on the
southern slope of the Knockmealdown range in County Waterford, contends
that the peneplane was due to marine erosion, and, although the present
author is in disagreement (Farrington, 1953), a very strong case can be made.
Whatever final conclusion is come to on this question one thing cannot be
disputed. The upper limit of the surface is lower in the west than it is in
the east. Miller (1939) shows that the peneplane abuts on the Knockmealdowns
at about 800 feet. On the Boggeraghs the edge is at about 700 feet. In
the Loo river basin on the opposite side of the Derrynasaggart watershed
a similar surface is found at a slightly lower level (Farrington, 1931). If the
whole surface were one of marine erosion a slight tilt would be necessary
to explain this. If, as it is contended here, the western portion, at least,
is subaerial and dies out on the sides of the valleys among the mountains
of West Cork, then the amount of tilt must have been even greater for there
would have been an initial slope to the east.
THE TOPOGRAPHICAL EFFECTS OF THE DIFFERING RESISTANCE TO EROSION OF

THE OLD RED SANDSTONE AND THE CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE AND SHALE.
An examination of the south of Ireland shows the effect of the differing

resistance to erosion of the Carboniferous rocks and the Old Red Sandstone.
In the present discussion the Carboniferous shale is not considered separately
from the limestone. It rarely makes any feature. Although it is not soluble
like the limestone it appears to offer little more resistance to erosion., Miller
(1939) maintains that the South Ireland Peneplane is well preserved on the
sandstone ridges of East Cork and Waterford, while 600 or 700 feet of
limestone has been removed. The contention that in West Cork the main
streams are generally adjusted to the structure suggests that the limestone
troughs, even at the time of the peneplane, were somewhat lower than the
sandstone ridges; but we are still faced with the probability that since the
destruction of the peneplane began several hundred feet of limestone
disappeared while the summits of the sandstone ridges remain virtually
unchanged. What about the slopes of the ridges? Have they been greatly
eroded or do they represent a close approximation to the surface that
underlay the Carboniferous rocks? It is here suggested that they do, and
that many even of the smaller features of the Lee basin still present, not
true erosion features, but irregularities of the original surface which separated
the Old Red Sandstone and the Carboniferous shale and limestone after
the Hercynian folding was complete. These rocks did not fold like sheets
of paper together. The major ridges and troughs involved both rocks, but
in the minor folds and crushing the rocks behaved to some extent
independently and a highly irregular surface as regards detail developed
between them. The rapid erosion of the limnestone, perhaps to a large extent
by solution, discovered this surface. In such a case it is obviously difficult

to apply the usual criteria in working out the morphological history of the
area.
The Toon valley seems to be an instance of the stripping of a sub
Carboniferous surface. A general description of this valley has been given
(Farrington, 1959) and it has been shown to be a wide depression with steep
sides and a level bottom. At the eastern end of the depression where limestone
still exists, the northern wall rises steeply on the Old Red Sandstone very
close to the contact with the Carboniferous and with a slope that is
comparable to the almost vertical dip of the Sandstone. The Carboniferous
Limestone rises in the middle of the depression in a low swell but the true
southern edge of the depression again comes near the junction of the two
formations, the southern bank rising steeply from the flat floor. At the
western end of the depression, although there are no Carboniferous beds and
Old Red Sandstone is exposed frequently, the form of the valley is the same,
a wide level bottom with steep sides. The depression has been strongly
glaciated in common with all the area, but it has not the aspect of a glacially
eroded valley. The present Toon is altogether too small to be responsible
for the excavation of so wide a valley; nor is it likely that the catchment
would ever have been bigger. Although there may have been much more
water during the melting of the West Cork ice cap there is no sign of the
features associated with rapid erosion of this type. The suggestion offered
is that this is a structural hollow which is being revealed by the stripping
off of the soft Carboniferous strata, with the exposure of the surface lying
between it and the underlying resistant Old Red Sandstone. This has been
completed at the western end of the depression while a skin of Carboniferous
strata of unknown thickness still remains at the eastern end. All this hollow,
except for the narrow ridge of limestone in the middle, lies below 220 feet.
Except for the narrow channel of the Lee no ground at so low a level is
met again until the river leaves the Old Red Sandstone and emerges through
the Inishearra gorge onto the lowlying limestone of the Cork syncline, fourteen
miles downstream. A considerable thickness of limestone must have been
carried along the channel and as no fluvial deposit containing any quantity
of limestone has been found it is thought that the erosion was mostly by
solution.
Another striking example of the revelation of this interformational surface
may be seen on the north side of the valley of the Lower Lee between
Inishcarra and Cork. The Old Red Sandstone rises as an almost vertical
cliff from the flat floor of limestone. The surface exposed is very nearly the
bedding plane of the rock. At a few places the river has bitten into the wall
of the valley, but even there the amount of erosion that has taken place on
the exposed slope of the sandstone since the removal of the limestone has
been negligible.
It must therefore, always be kept in mind that most of the erosion since
the time of the South Ireland Peneplane has taken place at the expense of
the Carboniferous limestone and shale and that the forms displayed by the
Old Red Sandstone where it has recently been uncovered are, in large measure,
those that existed beneath the Carboniferous cover and are not, therefore, true
erosion forms. For example, the steep sandstone slopes, which are so frequent
in the south of Ireland, cannot without other evidence, 1be considered to be
limiting cliffs of surfaces of marine erosion (see also Farrington, 1953).
In many cases the small incised valleys on the sandstone seem to be
related to the surface level of the limestone; and, so, owe their rejuvenation
to the relatively rapid wasting of the limestone rather than to the direct
influence of a lowered base level (Farrington, 1960).
One further matter must be considered. Evidence has been given
(Farrington, 1959) that there may have been isostatic readjustment in the
upper Lee valley after the retreat of the ice. The ice cannot have been very
thick even at the maximum, probably not more than about 1500 feet, as
it is known that the comparatively low mountain ranges north of the ice
shed, were able to stop movement in that direction. The recognisable uplift
is small, not more than about 20 feet.
The discussion of the development of the drainage pattern of the Lee
basin is based on the conviction that most of the erosion in the area since
the time of the South Ireland Peneplane has consisted in the removal of a
cover of Carboniferous rocks, and that the amount of erosion of the sandstone
was relatively small. In this case the amount of rock removed from the
area north of the Lee must have been very much less than the amount
removed from the Bride valley, and from the eastern end of other valleys
of south-east Cork. It seems to the author that in view of the great
probability of post-glacial tilting in this area as a result of the removal of
a comparatively small load of ice one cannot ignore the possibility of an
earlier tilt due to the removal of significant thicknesses of Carboniferous
rocks. As by far the greater thickness of these lay to the east and south
east of the area it would be reasonable to suspect a tilt from south-east to
north-west. This is already suggested by the tilt of the South Ireland
Peneplane. Isostatic compensation in this area resulting from the disappearance
of the limestone would accentuate this tilt. One of the most puzzling problems
of river diversion in the Lee valley may be resolved on this hypothesis (see
below, p. 252).
THE TRIBUTARIES.
The Sullane.
The Sullane, the main tributary of the Lee, flows altogether on the Old
Red Sandstone. Its course seems to be almost completely controlled by the
structure of the rocks. In the lower part of the valley the direction is
approximately east and west, but upstream the valley runs north-west and
south-east following the main trend of the strike of the locality, although
at times variations of the trend causes the strike to cross the regular straight
course of the river for short distances. Above Ballyvourney the valley turns
north-east and south-west, again clearly influenced by the structure which
FAnINGToN-The Lee Basin: Part 2, The Drainage Pattern. 241
completely dominates the topography of the area. Except for the part above
Ballyvourney the bottom of the valley lies below 400 feet. There are no
significant benches to give a clue to stages in the development of the valley.
The long flat between 500 and 600 feet in the Keel river valley, tributary
to that of the Sullane, is certainly a drift feature as there are considerable
accumulations of drift in the valley. Both north and south of the Sullane
valley the containing ridges overtop 600 feet. They are also aligned to the
general structure. It seems likely then that the valley was adjusted to
structure at the time of the South Ireland Peneplane, and that except that
the valley has been lowered by erosion the course has not changed.
The Laney.
The Laney river, which meets the Sullane a mile east of Macroom, rises
on the southern slope of the Boggeragh Mountains and flows for three miles
in a south-easterly direction. Near Glenaglogh the valley swings sharply
to the south-west; then curving to a course a little east of south it, after a
third change of direction, reaches the Sullane by a mile long stretch running
300 south of west. When the Laney turned away at Glenaglogh it was
heading directly towards the glen at the south-eastern end of which the
Delehinagh stream rises and flows away to the south-east. The highest level
of the bottom of the glen at its northern end, is 716 feet and the level of
the Laney at the angle is 665 feet, so that the captuire must have taken
place before the South Ireland Peneplane at this point was destroyed.
The aspect of the valley certainly supports the suggestion that this change
of direction is due to river capture (Miller, 1939). The upper part above
the elbow is the broadest and most mature part of the valley. It is directed
towards Glenaglogh, a long valley-like pass through a ridge. This may have
carried glacial drainage during the retreat of the last Cork-Kerry ice in
this area, but it is too wide and mature to have been eroded by these
glacial waters. The direction of the upper valley and of the pass are
parallel to the direction of streams flowing off the Boggeragh mountains
down the dip of the anticline. The reason why the upper Laney -should
have deserted its direct course for another apparently longer and, more
difficult will be discussed later (see below, p. 251).
The Delehinagh.
This river rises in a marshy flat at the south-eastern end of the Glenaglogh
pass. It is considered to be a beheaded stream, the original headwaters being
represented by the upper Laney. Enough high ground remains in the
vicinity to give an idea of what this stream was formerly like. On the
south-western side a long ridge, parallel to the present stream, rising to
over 900 feet, with a very steep slope over 700 feet suggests that the general
direction of the valley has not altered much since the time of the South
Ireland Peneplane. Perhaps it should be called an insequent stream as it
242 Proceedtngs of the Royal Irish Academy.
appears to have originated on a slope which was that of a major feature

developed by subaerial erosion. The disposition of the tributaries to this
stream, all entering it at acute angles, recall a pattern dominated by the
slope.
The Dripsey River.
This stream lies east of the Delehinagh and flows parallel to it. It has
a similar pattern of tributaries. There has been no piracy of this river. The
Dripsey joins the Delehinagh in a trough parallel to the strike and the
united streams flow east for a short distance until joined by another small
stream that has been diverted to the west by the same trough. The combined
waters break across a ridge to enter the Blarney-Coachford syncline. Here
the river flows east for two miles after which it turns south across the strike
to join the Lee, cutting a deep gorge in another ridge in doing so. The
east-west parts of the valley and the breaks across the ridges were evolved
during the wastage of the limestone surface upon which the streams originally
flowed.
The Owennagearagh.
This is now a small stream which rises, a mile and a half south-east
of Donoughmore, at a level of 590 feet in a pass in a long ridge which runs
south-east from Uctough (1167'), forming the right bank of the valley of
the Shournagh river. The Owennagearagh first flows south, but soon turns
south-east in the usual direction of the streams of this area. It continues
in this direction for nearly four miles until, reaching the limestone of the
Blarney syncline, it is deflected to the east into the Shournagh. The
Owennagearagh is of special interest because the middle part of its course
closely approximates to the line of the Inishcarra gorge through which the
Lee flows to reach the limestone of the Cork syncline on which it has its
lower course. It will be shown later that the Owennagearagh is a stream
that has lost its headwaters by capture.
The Shournagh.
This river rises on the eastern slopes of the, Boggeragh mountains and
flows in a deep straight valley for ten miles in a south-easterly direction.
The right bank is steep; the left less so. After ten miles the river enters the
Blarney syncline. It joins the Martin river, which has been caught in the
same syncline, and the united waters flow west for a mile. After being
joined by the Owennagearagh, which enters from the west, the river makes
its way through a steep gorge in the Old Red Sandstone to join the Lee
at Leemount.
The Shournagh differs from the Delahinagh and the Dripsey rivers in
the disposition of its tributaries. These are all on the left bank and they
all meet the main stream at wide angles. It is suggested that one of these
tributaries, the Rathcoola river, once formed the headwaters of the
Owennagearagh. The Rathcoola river enters the Shournagh at right angles.
Above the junction its valley is more mature than that of the main stream,
suggesting that it is older. It is directed towards the pass in which the

Owennagearagh rises. The wide, ill drained bottom of the pass lies at about
590 feet and the sides rise gently for more than 50 feet. It is an old feature,
probably a hollow in the South Ireland Peneplane, so that the capture must
have taken place very early in the new cycle. The level of the present
junction of the Rathcoola and Shournagh, at 390 feet, is sunk well below
the old surface.
The Martin.
The whole basin of this river is below the level of the South Ireland
Peneplane. It flows almost due south at right angles to the watershed along
the eastern extension of the Boggeragh Mountains. Its tributaries are evenly
spaced and enter the main stream at wide angles. It does not seem possible
to relate this stream directly to the South Ireland Peneplane, although it
is likely that it inherited its course from a stream that flowed on that surface.
The interpretation of the development of the valley is further complicated
because at the summit of the catchment the col was made into a through
valley by glacial drainage going south at the maximum on the Eastern
General Glaciation. The Martin was probably associated with the Shournagh
in the formation of three gaps in the ridge east of the Inishcarra gorge.
One of these now carries the Shournagh; the others are windgaps. Doubtless
the first was preferred by the river because it is controlled by a north-south
fault with a downthrow to the east. An explanation is offered below (p. 252)
for the formation of the other two gaps.
The River Bride.

The river Bride is the only tributary of importance which enters the Lee
on the southern side. The headwaters of this river lie on the Old Red
Sandstone on an upland where the anticlinal ridges, which separate the
Lee from the Bride and the Bride from the Bandon, come together. The
level of the source is at about 700 feet, but after seven miles the river
has fallen to below 200 feet. Here it reaches the limestone floor of the
Bride syncline close to the outfall of Lissardagh gap. Thereafter, for a
distance of nine miles until it reaches the Lee, it flows along the syncline.
First it hugs the shale belt at the northern side then, diverted by the great
accumulation of drift half-way along the valley, it crosses on the southern
side. Here it stays for two miles after which it crosses again to the north
and enters the Lee at Inishcarra through a small gorge cut across a subsidiary
anticline of Carboniferous Slate. The level of the bottom of the gorge' is
just over 50 feet, but the top of the gorge, on its eastern side where it
is lowest, rises to over 150 feet. Accordingly the Bride at this point must
have been established in its present course when the surface of the land
1 It is not known whether there is a deep buried channel here, such as occurs
in the Lee.
stood at least 100 feet higher than it does at present. In the continuation of
the syncline to the east the lowest route along the limestone surface lies
below 100 feet, except for a space of about half a mile where it slightly
surpasses this height. There must, therefore, have been appreciable wastage
of the limestone surface since the Bride was established in its little gorge.
It will be argued that until the diversion of the Lee to its present course
from Buingea Bridge to Glashgarriff its course was via the Lissardagh gap
and along the Bride syncline. The Bride and the lower Lee form a subsequent
river completely controlled by the structure of the rocks, except for the
little gorge which serves to point out the manner in which parts of the
river system have been superimposed from a wasting limestone surface.
Where the rock bed of the stream can be seen, as, for instance, for the last
mile or two above the gorge, it is sharply cut into the limestone surface.
It is not possible to draw any inference from this as this part of the valley
may have been affected either by drainage from the ice front or by a
glacial diversion.
THE DRAINAGE OF THE SOUTH IRELAND PENEPLANE.
The South Ireland Peneplane was, in this area, a surface of sub-aerial

erosion which declines from a change of slope at 700 feet on the surrounding
hills towards a main line of subsequent drainage which was generally adjusted
to structure. In the eastern part of the area where the peneplane is best
developed the main line of drainage has apparently been strongly influenced
by the major structures of the district. All the tributaries lie on the northern
side, flowing down from the major feature of the Boggeragh Mountains.
The main line of drainage had edged down slope until it was constrained
to flow along the feature made by the anticlinal ridge south of the Bride
valley.
The southern limit of the peneplane is not known, it is probably involved
in the history of the formation of the Irish Sea basin, but, so far as the
drainage of the Lee basin is concerned, the effective limit appears to have
been this long ridge lying south of the Bride valley.
Although the bench of the peneplane- along the mountains to the north
is sufficiently marked to assure the existence of the surface in this area, there
is not enough of it left to enable one to determine without some difficulty
the probable courses of the streams on it. In the first place, only valleys
that have some portions of their immediate neighbourhood lying above
600 feet can be considered. Of these there are only two in addition to the
Lee itself. These are the upper course of the Laney and the headwaters
of the Dripsey river. In both cases the flow was towards the south-east.
Some further information may be derived from a study of the ridges lying
to the south of the Lee.
It has been shown that the slope of the South Ireland Peneplane is of
the order of 25 feet to a mile. The summit of the ridge of the Cork
anticline is at an average distance of nine miles from the inner edge of the*
peneplane so that the height of the peneplane in the region of the ridge
would lie at about 500 feet. It may, therefore, be presumed that the gaps
across this ridge, the crest of which is over 500 feet, may mark the line of
former streams upon that surface. The slight isostatic tilt of the peneplane
considered later on is not enough to affect this general argument.
The next ridge to the south, that lying south of the Bride valley, iss
broader and higher. For the greater part of its length of over 20 miles from
Crookstown in the West to Passage at Cork Harbour the broad back of the
ridge surpasses 500 feet with frequent summits above or only a little below
600 feet. Only one well-marked gap crosses the ridge and this does not cut
low enough to notch the 400 foot contour. If the summit of this ridge,
which lies fifteen miles from the northern edge of the South Ireland Peneplane,
is considered to be a part of that surface then the peneplane must have been
a gently undulating terrane produced by sub-aerial erosion on which the
upper Lee and the Bride had been established as subsequent streams.
This is all that can be said with assurance about the drainage pattern
on the South Ireland Peneplane, but it may be possible to deduce some other
reasonable probabilities.
The upper Laney turns south-west, at a sharp elbow of capture, away
from a mature dry valley which must represent a part of its course before
the diversion. The Delehinagh rises to the south-eastern end of this dry
valley and flows south-east. Although all the course of this river lies below
the South Ireland Peneplane its alignment with the upper reaches of the
Laney, the arrangement and the angle of entry of its tributaries strongly
suggest that it is a beheaded stream which has been 'let down' from the
level of the South Ireland Peneplane to its present level with a minimum
of disturbance. The vertical distance of this 'let down' is between 200 and
300 feet. Similar arguments may be applied to the lower Dripsey river and
it is suggested that it was these two streams which united to flow as a single
river across the ridge at the Srelane wind-gap. There is no other stream in
the district that could have eroded this gap.
The headwaters of the Shournagh river have some development above
the level of the South Ireland Peneplane and it may be that here again may
be found a trace of the drainage of that period. It has already been noted that
a south-flowing tributary, the Rathcoola river, which enters the Shournagh
at Fornaght, has a better developed and much larger valley above the
junction than the Shournagh itself. Furthermore, just south of the junction
there is a low marshy pass at 590 feet between two summits which rise to
653 and 644 feet respectively. It is suggested that this gives the direction
of the original stream that flowed on the South Ireland Peneplane so that
the Rathcoola river represents the headwaters of a stream the lower, beheaded
portion of which is represented by the Owennagearagh. The direction of the
Rathcoola river and of the Lyredane river, another south-flowing tributary,
which joins the Shournagh three miles below Fornaght, is more in agreement
with the usual direction of valleys in this locality than that of the Shournagh.
It is possible that the Shournagh above the junction with the Lyradane is
a pirating tributary and that the original streams on the South Ireland
Peneplane were the Rathcoola-Owennagearagh and the Lyradane-Lower
Shournagh.
There must have been a stream draining that portion of the peneplane
which existed in the area now occupied by the basin of the Martin, but
there is not any evidence to show how the stream flowed. Presumably some
such stream was responsible for cutting one of the gaps across the ridge
which separates the Blarney syncline from the lower Lee valley.
do~~~I
N.~~~~'
os~ ~~t
I,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0
I ~~~~~~~~~~~~
% %6
to~ ~~ 500 Scl o 0ie

LEEMOUN T II
TEMPLEHILL
00 I GARtRAVAGH
F iG. 2.-Map of Lower Lee and Shoumnagh with wind-gaps. Contours 110'
to 500'. Scale I' to a mifle.
Apart from what has been said above the only other clues to the possible
courses of streams on the peneplane are to be found in an examination of
the passes through the ridge of the Cork anticline. The most westerly of
these is the Lissardagh gap. It is clear that this is a former river valley,
probably modified at the bottom by glacial drainage (Farrington,
1959). The upper parts of the gap have clearly been eroded slowly as a part
of a normal valley, not by a glacial torrent (Fig. 3A). It may be deduced
from the form of the contours that erosion had reached at least as low as
300 feet before there was interference and modification by glacial waters.
East of this gap the ridge, rising to over 500 feet, maintains this
level or higher, for there are several areas lying over 600 feet, for a distance
of five miles. Thence for three miles farther to the east the level of the crest
lies between 500 and 400 feet, but nowhere is there an indication of a gap.
At Srelane, however, there is a break in the ridge; a col, with its lowest
level at 350 feet, makes a pass 150 feet deep across it. The manner in which
the 400 foot contour turns across the ridge at right angles shows that the
col has not been deserted sufficiently long for the characteristics of a stream
valley to be altogether destroyed (Plate XIII).
Two miles farther east the Inishcarra gorge, which carries the Lee
through the ridge, makes the largest breach. The level of the water is 60
feet and the summits on either side rise to over 500 feet. This gorge must
have carried water during the whole of the period under discussion, that is
from the time of the South Ireland Peneplane until the present day. There
is some evidence in the cross-section of the gorge that cutting has been more
rapid below 300 feet (Fig. 3B).
(A)
60
$0.0
400
300
200
L*ssordoqh Gap
(B)
S00/ SCALE
400 \ //AML
390 \ / vERTICAL SCALE
N14 FEET - 4 x
200 HORIZONTAL SCALE
100
ln shcqrfo
(C)
Soo (E)
400 300
300 2OO
200 0oo0
100 0 --
o Auqhnoboy Pike
ShournTqh at Leemount
(D)
soo. Soo
(F)
400 ' _ ,
300 30
200 0
100 to
0
RE from Templehill across the Shournoqh above Healy Corrov

Bridoe
FiG. 3.-Sections across Lissardagh gap and the gaps in the Cork anticline shown
in Fig. 2. The reference letters correspond in Figs. 2 and 3.
The gap at Garravagh (Fig. 2) which lies next to the east is a wind-gap
which, like Srelane gap, Sill retains some of the form of a river valley. At 270
feet it is lower than Srelane gap and must have been deserted somewhat later
than Srelane although under somewhat different circumstances.
The combined waters of the Martin, Shournagh and Owennagearagh
escape across the ridge by the next gap, a deep gorge between Templehill
(517') and Leemount Hill (367'). The surface of the river is about 30 feet.
Again the cross-section (Fig. 3c) suggests that the cutting of the lower part
of the gorge has been rapid.
A mile farther to the east a wide depression in a low part of the
ridge makes another col. It is much more mature than any other of
the passes through the ridge. The summits on either side are 367' and 350'.
The bottom of the col lies at 250' and the distance between the 300'
contours is nearly half a mile. This, the lowest of all the passes across the
ridge and, therefore, presumably the last to be deserted, is the most mature
of all. No conventional explanation offers itself for this peculiarity.
From this evidence, meagre though it is, we may attempt a reconstruction
of the pattern of the drainage at the time of the South Ireland Peneplane
in this area (Fig. 4). The Lee and the Sullane, with a tributary representing
the Laney, pass through Lissardagh gap into the Bride valley. The main
stream must have made its way along this valley as it has been shown that
there is no possibility of finding a way for it across the ridge that lies to
the south of the Bride valley. The Delehinagh, carrying the headwaters of
the present Laney and joined by the Dripsey river made its way by the
Srelane gap also to the Bride valley. This means, of course, that the present
valley of the Lee between Buingea bridge and the entry of the Delehinagh
Dripsey did not exist except as the valley of a comparatively small tributary.
The topography of the area is not antagonistic to this suggestion. The only
tributary to the present Lee that might have antidated the present course,
the Glashagarriff river, enters the Lee through a gorge that heads in a
waterfall thirty feet high, as if this part of the Lee had been cut only
recently so that the Glashagarriff river has not had time to adjust itself.
The next stream to the east was the Owennagearagh with the Rathcoola
river as its original headwaters. It is suggested that it was this stream that
was responsible for the initiation of the Inishcarra gorge. The upper
Shournagh was a much smaller stream and it is likely that the Lyradane
river, with what is now the lower Shournagh, formed the original stream
on the peneplane. The Shournragh above the junction with the Lyradane
was at this time only a small tributary. It may have been this Lyradane
Shournagh that began the cutting of the gap at Garravagh.
The ancestor of the Martin on the Peneplane is conjectural. There must
have been some stream to drain this section of the peneplane. The present
Martin is parallel to the line of the other streams reconstructed nearby and
some such stream would be necessary to initiate the Leemount gap.
5 6 7 8
2
_ ~~~~~~~~~.I
~0
S~~~~~~~~Sko
FIG. 4.-Upper figure-Sketch map of the p

Peneplane in the Lee Basin:
(1) Lee; (2) Sullane; (3) Laney; (4) L
(6) Rathcoola-Owennagearagh; (7) Lyre
Lower figure-Present drainage patter
PROC. R.I.A., VOL 61, SECT. B. [2 N]
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRESENT DRAINAGE.
Starting with the drainage pattern shown on Fig. 4 there is a series of

captures to be considered. Two of these occurred in the upper reaches of
the respective streams. The wind-gap left by the capture of the headwaters
of the Delehinagh lies at 716 feet and that left by the capture of the
Rathcoola at 590'. Other changes of course lower down the Lee have left
wind-gaps at 350 and 250 feet. But this does not give any indication of
the relative times at which these occurred. One cannot assume that those
that happened in the higher parts of the valleys were earlier than those
which happened lower down; or vice versa. Each case must be decided on
its own merits.
It seems that the capture of the headwaters of the Delehinagh took
place much later than the capture of the Rathcoola river. The deserted
valley opposite the elbow of capture on the Laney is only 50 feet above the
river and its sides are still steep. The deserted wind-gap of the Rathcoola
lies 200 feet above the Shournagh and it is shallow and smoothed by long
erosion. Both captures are clearly associated with the peneplane. But the
occurrence of a capture in association with a surface of erosion does not mean
that the capture took place during or even near to the time when the said
surface was the dominant feature. Such a capture need not occur until very
late in the destruction of the surface. In the present case the capture of the
Rathcoola river probably took place very early in the new cycle that initiated
the break up of the surface. On the other hand, the capture of the
Delehinagh did not take place until the destruction of the peneplane was
well advanced. Indeed there is indirect evidence that the diversion did not
take place until the Lee had cut its valley down to below 300 feet, 250 to
300 feet below the level of the peneplane at its lowest point.
The first change, then, that took place was the capture of the Rathcoola
river by a tributary of the Lyradane-Shournagh stream. No reason is
obvious why this should have happened. Such a stream would have run
across the strike of rock at present exposed on the surface. But the stream
may be superimposed and there may have been some topographic relations
between the surface of the then overlying limestone and the Old Red
Sandstone which favoured the stream. The long ridge of Old Red Sandstone
that forms the right bank of the Shournagh must have been prominent ever
since the wastage of the limestone began to lower the surface of the South
Ireland Peneplane. The ridge would have concentrated the drainage along
this line and so would have favoured a pirating stream. The part of the Lee
between the entry of the Glashagarriff river and Inishcarra may be another
example of a superimposed stream which has been controlled in direction
by the emergence of a resistant ridge. The river originally flowing on a
limestone cover at the lowest point of the peneplane was constrained by
the emerging ridge of the Cork anticline and there became entrenched in
the sandstone as it was uncovered.
After the capture of the Rathcoola no more changes took place for a
considerable time. The destruction of the peneplane went on until the
Carboniferous rocks were eroded from all except the lower levels of the
main valley. It does not seenm possible to get closer to the problem than
this vague generalisation. A period of planation occurred as shown by the
flattening of the valley slopes between 400 and 300 feet. The area lying
between these contours is very broad in the valley from Coachford to
Inishcarra, and also in the valleys of the Delehinagh and all the other
tributaries. Below this level the slope of the valley sides steepens sharply as
if rejuvenation had taken place. The slackening of the slope certainly
represents a period when the downcutting of the main river was slow and
a broad surface was developing in the valley. It was about this time, perhaps
when the rejuvenation indicated by the steeper slope below the flat was
initiating a new cycle, that the Srelane gap was deserted and the Delehinagh
Dripsey was diverted to the Inishcarra gorge.
The Lee still flowed through the Lissardagh gap and it is likely that the
capture of the headwaters of the Delehinagh by the Laney took place before
Lissardagh was deserted. At this time the conditions were most favourable
for such a capture. From the elbow of capture via the Laney to the main
stream of the Lee was about ten miles. From the same point via the
Delehinagh the distance to the main stream is fifteen miles. Once the
Lissardagh gap was deserted and the Lee had assumed its present course
the advantage would have been Aith the Delehinagh. There is no significant
difference either as regards rock formation or structure between the courses
of the two streams.
It was probably not very long after this capture that the diversion of
the Lee from the Lissardagh gap took place. This is the hardest diversion
to explain. The gap led the Lee by a short route, only three miles long,
to the easily eroded limestone bottom of the Bride syncline, yet the river
turned away and struggled through some five miles of very difficult country
until it came to the Glashagarriff valley. Neither the topography nor the
geology is such that one can readily postulate a powerful tributary which
would cut back fast enough to capture the main streams of a large river
with so advantageous course as the Lee had at this period. If the conjecture
is right that there was a lens of limestone at Caum (Farrington, 1959) some
assistance would have been given to a pirating tributary, but not enough to
account for the capture of a large and vigorous river in its middle course.
The narrowest part of the present Lee valley occurs at Coolnacarriga
a mile and a half north-east of Buingea Bridge. Here a rocky bar almost
closes the valley. On the west side of the river this bar forms a ridge the
crest of which lies at 225-230 feet. Approaching the river the ridge drops
steeply some 40 feet down to the level of the river alluvium at 190 feet.
Here, however, the alluvium is replaced by a flat bench of rock, some 60
feet broad, lying between the foot of the steep slope and the river. At the
opposite side of the river the rock rises almost vertically for 40 feet to 230
feet, and continues in a steep, regular slope to more than 400 feet. There
seems no question but that the bar was breached at a level of 225-230 feet
by a powerful stream which cut rapidly down to form a wide rocky bed
at 190 feet. It was into this river bottom that the deep interglacial channel
(Farrington, 1959), which contains, and underlies, the present stream, was
cut.
The level of the bottom of Lissardagh gap is 240 feet, an unknown amount
of which is due to glaci-fluvial erosion. The drainage of a catchment basin
of some 250 square miles of mountainous country was passing through this
gap, whereas the catchment available to any tributary cutting back from the
Glashagarriff valley could not have been more than ten or twelve square
miles. It is difficult to believe that the main stream would not have held its
own against such a tributary unless some process other than normal stream
erosion intervened. This, it is suggested, might well have been tilting of the
land surface, possibly caused by isostatic readjustment resulting from the
release of load due to the erosion of the limestone to the east and south-east
(see page 240).
This was the last major episode in the history of the Lee. Since it has
been in its final course changes have been slight, being confined to alterations
in the lower courses of the Owennagearagh, Shournagh and Martin rivers
(Fig. 2). Here complications are introduced by the occurrence of a large
lens of Carboniferous rocks at Blarney, by a strong north-south fault along
the Leemount gorge and by the possibility of interference from glacial
deposits which are heavy east of Blarney.
It seems that the cutting of the Shournagh gorge from Healy's Bridge to
Leemount was the latest event. The cross-section of the gorge (Fig. 3c)
indicates that there has been very rapid cutting below 300 feet. Above
Healy's Bridge the cross-section (Fig. 3D) shows that a recent notch below
200 feet has been cut in the floor of a mature valley. This mature valley,
which runs from east to west, is continued by the mature valley (Fig. 3E),
now deserted, connecting with the Blackpool valley which leads to the Lee
in the middle of the city of Cork. The end of the story would then be as
follows: the Shournagh and Martin united flowed eastward towards the
Blackpool valley until the comparatively recent breaching of the ridge at
Leemount gorge by a small stream working back along a fault from the lower
valley of the Lee. After the breaching the incision of the valley moved
rapidly upstream to capture the Owennagearagh which up to then had
been tributary to the Lee at Inishcarra.
The wind-gap at Garravagh (Fig. 3F), which must have been deserted
somewhat earlier than the happenings suggested above, seems to have been
associated with a small stream flowing south off the anticlinal ridge. The
relic of this stream is seen in the curiously curved S valley of the Currabeha,
the lower part of which is a reversed stream. The gap was not involved in
the later changes of the Shournagh and Owennagearagh.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
The maps and figures were drawn by Mrs. K. M. Davies, to whom my
thanks are due. I also acknowledge very useful comments from Mr. G. L.
Davies.
REFERENCES.
Cole, G. A. J. and Crook, T. 1910 On rock specimens dredged from the

floor of the Atlantic. Memoirs of the Geol. Survey of Ireland.
Dublin.
Farrington, A. 1931 The Loo valley, Co. Kerry. Proc. Roy. Irish Acad,,
40, B, 109.
- 1953 The South Ireland Peneplane. Irish Geog., 2, 211.
- 1959 The Lee Basin. Part I : Glaciation. Proc Roy.
Irish Acad., 60, B, 135.
-1960 Types of rejuvenated valleys found in Ireland.
Irish Geog., 4, 117.
Jukes, J. B. et al. 1861 Explanations to accompany sheets 185 and 186
of the maps of the Geol. Survey of Ireland. Dublin.
- 1862 On the mode of formation of some river wall
valleys in the south of Ireland, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 18, 378.
London.
Martin, S. 1952 Probl?mes morphologuques de l'Irlande du Sud. Annales
de Bretagne, 59, 115. Rennes.
Miller, A. A. 1939 River development in Southern Ireland. Proc. Roy.
Irish Acad., 45, B, 321. Dublin.
-? 1955 The origin of the South Ireland Peneplane, Irish
Geog., 3, 79.
Whittow, J. B. 1958 The Structure of the Southern Irish Sea area,
Advancement of Sei., 14, 381.
PROC. R.LA., VOL. 61, SECT. B. [2 01
EXPLANATION OF PLATE.
MAP OF BASIN OF THE RIVER LEE.
The 600' contour is marked by a heavy dashed line. This enables the
South Ireland Peneplane to be traced as a bench, between 600' and 700'
O.D., up into the mountain valleys as well as along the south slope of the
Boggeragh Mountains. This may be seen north-west of Lough Allua, around
the headwaters of the Toon River and of the Keel River. The mnany small
closed contour rings at 600' indicate the break up of the surface of the
peneplane.
PRoc. R. I. AcAw., VOL. 61, SIECT. B.
........Carbon iferous areas accordinq to the Geol. Suve

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The Drainage Pattern

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The Drainage Pattern

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The Lee Basin: Part 2, the Drainage Pattern

THE LEE BASIN: PART 2, THE DRAINAGE PATTERN.

[Read 9 MAY, 1960. Published 17 FEBRUARY, 1961.]

THE morphology of the Lee Basin is described and a method of approach

PROC. R.I.A., VOL 61, SECT. B. [2 MI

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE LEE BASIN.

In geomorphological studies an approach to a problem in drainage

*:E N T. PRESENT SUFACE

THE SOUTH IRELAND PENEPLANE.

THE TOPOGRAPHICAL EFFECTS OF THE DIFFERING RESISTANCE TO EROSION OF

An examination of the south of Ireland shows the effect of the differing

by solution, discovered this surface. In such a case it is obviously difficult

appears to have originated on a slope which was that of a major feature

suggesting that it is older. It is directed towards the pass in which the

The River Bride.

THE DRAINAGE OF THE SOUTH IRELAND PENEPLANE.

The South Ireland Peneplane was, in this area, a surface of sub-aerial

to~ ~~ 500 Scl o 0ie

RE from Templehill across the Shournoqh above Healy Corrov

FIG. 4.-Upper figure-Sketch map of the p

PROC. R.I.A., VOL 61, SECT. B. [2 N]

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRESENT DRAINAGE.

Starting with the drainage pattern shown on Fig. 4 there is a series of

Cole, G. A. J. and Crook, T. 1910 On rock specimens dredged from the

PROC. R.LA., VOL. 61, SECT. B. [2 01

MAP OF BASIN OF THE RIVER LEE.

........Carbon iferous areas accordinq to the Geol. Suve

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Based on the Ordnance Survey by perinission of the Minister for Fina

9o6 .700/ 600

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