Lough Doo
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Geology & landscape
Geological Period: Quaternary
Landscape processes: Glacial
Description
Lough Doo Pleistocene The Lough Doo area is of importance in understanding the recent glacial history of Northern Ireland. The landscape has been defined by events that occurred towards the end of the last Ice Age, between 17,000 and 13,000 years ago, a period of gradual climatic warming. Ice retreated south and east from this area towards the Lough Neagh lowlands. A large waterbody, known as a proglacial lake, formed between this ice margin and the Sperrin uplands to the north, and was fed by meltwater and sediment carried by streams flowing under the ice. Sediment accumulated in the lake, developing the Killucandelta, now intensely quarried. Sediment deposits also developed within the sub-glacial streams at Lough Doo, where they are preserved as a series of relatively pristine branching, sharp-crested ridges or eskers. These are approximately 20-25 m high, and lower in elevation northwards from the foothills of the Evishanoran Mountain. https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/publications/lough-doo-assi