The dry channels at Ballyfoyle, Co. Kilkenny: a relict landscape of subglacial water
Hegarty, SusanORCID: 0000-0003-0214-9610
(2013)
The dry channels at Ballyfoyle, Co. Kilkenny: a relict landscape of subglacial water.
Irish Geography, 45
(2).
pp. 175-197.
ISSN 0075-0778
This paper examines the geomorphology of a suite of deep channels around the village of Ballyfoyle on the Castlecomer Plateau, Co. Kilkenny, and suggests a mechanism for their formation. The channels were mapped using a 10-m digital terrain model and ground truthed in the field. The channel locations were superimposed on a bedrock map of the area. Sediments within two passages of the nearby Dunmore Cave were also examined. While the cave sediments represent flow within a karstic system from a stream with its origin outside of the cave system itself, and possibly indicate subglacial flow, the adjacent channels are all eroded into bedrock that would have acted as a poor aquifer beneath the glacier. The channels are therefore interpreted as subglacial meltwater channels. The paper suggests that the aquifer characteristics were important in determining the method of subglacial hydrology present during glaciation in this area.