Sherkin Island Marine Station

 

Free postage
in Ireland
on orders
of €50.00
or more!

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

Back to Publications' Homepage

 

Order from:

Sherkin Island Marine Station,
Sherkin Island,
Co. Cork,
Ireland.

Email Orders

 

Payment Options:

Cheques or Postal Order

Cheques or postal orders can be made out to: Sherkin Island Marine Station and sent to the address above.

Paypal

You can also pay by Paypal. Even if you do not have a Paypal account, Paypal will still accept credit card payments.

Email us your order and we will email you back a Paypal payment request.

 

 

 

The Wild Plants of Bere,
Dursey, Whiddy
and other Islands
of Bantry Bay


John Akeroyd (Editor), Leander Wolstenholme, Jenna Poole
Wendy Atkinson, Paul Flynn, Marketa Janouchova
Caroline Plant, Jenny Fisher


Sample pages

The Wild Plants of Bere, Dursey, Whiddy and other Islands in Bantry Bay puts on record the variety of wild plants found in Ireland's most famous natural harbour. This part of West Cork is famed for its dramatic scenery, mild climate and sub-tropical gardens, and both land and sea are richly steeped in history. Plants, people and landscape have shaped one another, and this book examines the history, geography, geology, vegetation and land use of this beautiful corner of Ireland, as well as presenting an annotated catalogue or Flora of its wild plants.

This Flora of the islands of Bantry Bay complements an earlier study of the islands of nearby Roaringwater Bay, published in 1996 and (Supplement) 2011. The islands of Bantry Bay proved to be as floristically interesting as those of Roaringwater, with a total of 578 wild plants recorded and doubtless many more to be discovered. In the past, botanists largely neglected the islands, especially the two largest, Bere and Whiddy, and most of the records reported in this present book were compiled between 1997 and 2008 by botanists based at Sherkin Island Marine Station. However, plant records from Bantry Bay go back over four centuries. Philip O'Sullivan Beare (1590-1636), who lived on Dursey as a boy and later wrote The Natural History of Ireland, noted medicinal plants, as well as crops and woodland trees, from Bantry Bay and the islands. Ireland's first woman botanist, Ellen Hutchins (1785–1815) from Ballylickey at the head of Bantry Bay, compiled an annotated list of 360 flowering plants found in and around the Beara Peninsula, and was the first botanist to record the plants of Whiddy Island.

JOHN AKEROYD has a wide knowledge of the Irish flora, and especially that of the islands of West Cork, which he has visited for over 25 years. He edited the first Flora published by Sherkin Island Marine Station, The Wild Plants of Sherkin, Cape Clear and Adjacent Islands of West Cork, and has been advisor to the botanists at the Marine Station for many years.
John has a degree in Botany from the University of St. Andrews and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Having completed post-doctoral fellowships at Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Reading, he became a botanical consultant, conservationist and writer, and co-founded and edited the international plant conservation magazine Plant Talk. He first learned of the flora of West Cork from the famous botanist Oleg Polunin, who had stayed on Sherkin in the early 1950s and who taught him at school. Since 2000 John has worked with a project in Romania that links farming, biodiversity and conservation. He lives and works in Wiltshire.



ISBN: 978-1-870492-48-5 · Softback · 170 x 245 mm · 240 pp
140 colour photographs

Published by Sherkin Island Marine Station

Price: €10.00 (reduced from €19.99)

plus postage: Ireland - €6.00

(Please email for postage rate outside Ireland)

 

© Sherkin Island Marine Station 2022