Reenadinna Yew Wood

Nearest town: Killarney

Site type: woodland

Access: Public

Church name: No Data

Diocese: No Data

County: Co. Kerry

Country: Ireland

Grid ref: V95888638

Lost yew site: No

Date visited: 20-Jul-05

Recorded by: Tim Hills

Protection & responsibility: No data

Yews recorded at this site: Notable

Notes: This area of pure yew woodland is found on the Muckross Peninsula between the lower and middle lakes. It is considered to be the rarest habitat type within Killarney National Park. The official Killarney National Park website http://homepage.tinet.ie/~knp/yew/describes the woodland as follows:'The wood covers an area of approximately 60 acres (25 hectares) which comprises a series of undulating limestone outcrops known as reefs. The soil is generally thin throughout the wood and in many parts of the wood the Yew trees are rooted into fissures in the bare limestone. The dense shade cast by the Yew trees means that flowering plants do not flourish here, and the herb layer is poorly developed. There is, however, little regeneration of the Yew trees themselves within Reenadinna. Overgrazing of the woodland floor by Sika Deer could be partly to blame, but exclosures (small areas of the wood fenced off to exclude deer) set up in 1969 have still demonstrated little Yew regeneration. The dense canopy in the Yew wood allows little direct sunlight to reach the woodland floor and this in itself may prevent the growth of Yew seedlings'.