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Lectures

field Trips

Glaciers of the Mourne Mountains,N.Ireland

Thursday 5th December
Talk by Dr Sam Roberson
Venue Zoom onlyTBC
Time 7.00pm
Research in the field of glacial geology over the past twenty years has dramatically improved our understanding of the growth and decay of the British and Irish Ice Sheet, primarily through the BRITICE and BRITICE-CHRONO projects. New understandings of glacial dynamics in the Mourne Mountains have also come about though mapping work by the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, as well as by research projects led by Queens University Belfast, University College Dublin and the University of New South Wales. Building on the seminal research by Marshall McCabe in the early 2000s, this recent research has provided us with further age constraints for the deglaciation of valley glaciers in the Mournes, as well as an understanding of local ice cap dynamics through numerical modelling. Rather than being fed by an ice building up on the mountains themselves, glaciers flowing out of the Mourne Mountains in the Annalong Valley and Silent Valley are thought to have been supplied by a large ice dome centred over Lough Neagh. Late-glacial (Nahanagan stadial) corrie glaciers similar to those identified in the Wicklow Mountains are not thought to have been found in the Mournes.

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White Head – history of our economic geology

Tuesday 16th December 2025
Talk by Ian Enlander
Time 7pm
Venue Zoom

Before the town of Whitehead came into existence, there were a number of flourishing industries in the vicinity of White Head, the limestone headland that once stood south of the present town. These industries used the local geology as their raw material.

The local geology – red, white and black – mainly consists of Triassic mudstones (red), being the oldest rocks present, succeeded by the Cretaceous series, notably the Ulster White Limestone (white), capped by the Lower Basalts (black). Using field evidence together with a range of historical sources, the story of how these raw materials formed the basis of an important series of industries will be discussed. The area flourished during the heyday of ‘Victorian industrialisation’ with the coming of the railway, a better road network and development of harbour facilities.

Although the quarries, brickworks and harbour are now quiet and the evidence mostly long gone, the story of these industries and associated activities can be understood through historical maps, postcards, photographs and artwork. This small area hosts a lot of industrial heritage.

Ian Enlander

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