Transcript: Glaciated Landscape

Ireland’s hills and mountains are formed from her oldest, hardest rocks – they’re part of the legacy of her geological past, the foundation on which this island is built.

But the landscapes we see today have more recent origins. Everywhere, Ireland has been sculpted in some way by one of the greatest forces of nature – ice.

For almost 2 million years Ireland, like the rest of Europe, was locked in the grip of the Ice Age. Glaciers - vast moving sheets of ice - destroyed nearly all life and transformed the contours of the land. No part of Ireland completely escaped their impact.

In the Mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland, the glaciers never quite reached the summits – but the cold they carried with them did. Frost action split and shattered the rock faces, chiseling steep ravines and deeply carved peaks.