Gortin Glen Tree Harvest & Gortin Lakes Omagh Co. Tyrone Northern Ireland.

Gortin Glen Tree Harvest & Gortin Lakes . Amidst the broad sweep of the Sperrins foothills, the Gortin Lakes had their origins in the late glacial period.
A retreating ice sheet dammed a lake, into which rivers brought vast quantities of sediment. The sediment was then deposited in a series of deltas. Today, this dry raised fan of material supports 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 4,000 years old.
Turf-cutters have unearthed the remains of a Bronze Age field network under the bog nearby, established at a time when the climate was different and the growing qualities of soil quickly became exhausted.
Perched among the glacial moraines (rocky debris or till carried along and deposited by a glacier), these lakes, known as kettle-holes, formed from melted blocks of ice abandoned by the retreating ice-sheet. They are the haunt of mallard, teal and the occasional nesting feral greylag goose.
Around the lakes, green and blue damselflies dart among the swampy vegetation, which includes the rare broad-leaved mud sedge. This is a place of open vistas, expansive bogland and the ever-present whistling wind — a fitting place for hunting falcons. The lakes are located within the Murrins Nature Reserve