On Monday the 14^th of June, 5^th and 6^th class went on a nature walk in the Gearagh. An environmentalist named Ted Cook kindly showed us around and gave us a lot of information about the Gearagh. Firstly, he showed us a willow tree which he told us is also known as the sally tree. A willow is one of the 27 native trees in Ireland, five of the 27 native trees are evergreen and 22 are deciduous. Then, Ted spotted something in a bush nearby- a honey bee along with a black Irish bee- they were collecting pollen. Afterwards we moved on but we quickly came to a halt when Ted spotted yet another creature, it was a blue damsel fly and it looked really pretty. We walked on and saw so many different plants and creatures and my information about the Gearagh was expanding constantly. We came to a bridge and viewed the many tiny fish paddling below. Ted continued to talk and share his knowledge even though some heads were still concentrating on the water below. Ted Cook told us that the Gearagh was formed at the end of last Ice Age and that some hills were flat because of the glaciers that weighed them down many years ago. The whole class became models as we were posing left and right for pictures. Ted surprised us by taking a dandelion and scoffing it down he said that all dandelions are fully edible, but I can’t say I’ll be eating dandelions for dinner! He showed us a plant named verian and he said that after few sniffs you would go into a deep sleep. Next we had our long awaited lunch by the water but Ted didn’t rest and instead of food he fed us more and more information. After devouring our lunch Ted gave us some nuts and told us we must chew our nut 34 times to get the flavour out. We saw various types of flowers along the way such as: the Gearagh rose and the ragged robin. Ted Cook also told us that when a tree has been chopped down it’s called a coppise but when it hasn’t been chopped down it’s called a maiden. Eventually after walking around for another while we had the grand finale- the humongous yew tree. We strolled into the garden of a nearby house and were amazed to see such big, beautiful tree. Ted told us how to figure out the age of the tree using a measuring tape, we used his method and after some calculating done by Mr Coakley we figured out the yew tree was 233 years old! Ted Cook informed us that yew trees are really important and are used for chemo therapy. Then the whole class walked back to the car park and met the patient parents. It was a really fun trip and now I’m bursting with knowledge about the Gearagh and of course it was also great to have a day off school.

By:  Amy White