the murrins

Set amidst the broad sweep of the Sperrin foothills, the Murrins had their origins in the late glacial period, when a retreating ice sheet dammed a lake into which rivers brought vast quantities of sediment which were deposited in a series of deltas. Today this dry raised fan of material supports a rich heath vegetation dominated by bell heather which is home to the red grouse. Its dry ridges extend out like a delta into a sea of blanket bog, itself only some 4000 years old. Turf-cutters here have unearthed the remains of a bronze-age field network under the bog, established at a time when the climate was different and the growing qualities of soil quickly became exhausted. Facilities: None, Visitors are asked to contact the Warden to arrange access. Perched among the glacial moraines are several small lakes called kettle-holes, formed from melted blocks of ice abandoned by the retreating ice-sheet; they are the haunt of mallard, teal and an occasional nesting feral grey-lag goose.