Landscapes, landforms and geomorphological heritage in Killarney National Park: a first inventory of irish ‘geomorphosites’ - Archive ouverte HAL
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2010

Landscapes, landforms and geomorphological heritage in Killarney National Park: a first inventory of irish ‘geomorphosites’

Résumé

Geomorphology is a geographical science which describes and analyzes terrestrial landforms and their evolutions. Landforms, far from being congealed, are dynamic and in perpetual evolution. They result of three interwoven stories: the one of the rocks, the one of the tectonic deformations and finally, the one of the forms (Pralong, 2003). Landforms are also perceived by human eyes, inserted in European academic and conventional landscapes models: if the sublime model formalizes the discovery by the social elite of a singular beauty of “wild nature” spaces (mountains, coasts, deserts essentially), the development of tourism during the same period brings the picturesque model which will motivate the tourist mobility in the XIXth century (Vivien, 2005; Luginbühl, 2006; Berque, 2008). Landforms acquire a scientific value, but also cultural, aesthetic, and economic ones. Killarney National Park (Kerry, Ireland) has been created in 1932. It testifies of these various links between man and landforms. As all the natural parks, Killarney National Park is an attractive space for visitors in search of wild spaces and of “wild nature". Its main attraction lies in the aestheticism of its landscapes, in which landforms play an essential role in the perceptions and representations which result from them. The Killarney geomorphological landscapes are formed by old red sandstone and limestone, modelled by various processes associated to old tectonic movements of 300 million years. During the quaternary glaciations, mountains were shaped by ice and linked processes, leaving in inheritance a landscape of lakes, valleys and glacial corries overhung by 800 metres high peaks. The intense clearing of the Neolithic in the XIXth century and the oceanic pronounced atmosphere (strong wind and important rainfalls) let today appearing opened landscapes, characterized by moor, “bald summits", and valleys strewed with lakes and islands, offering spectacular landforms. Killarney National Park also constitutes a pioneer space in the artistic, pictorial and literary expression of landscapes in Europe. From the end of the XVIIIth century, and all along the XIXth century, the different publications linked to the current space of the Park present numerous engravings and paintings relative to the romantic, sublime and picturesque trends. This ‘beauty’ of the landscapes associated to the notion of "pleasant" called the "serenity of the soul” (Luginbühl, 1989) is readable in travellers' narratives of the 1840’s. These picturesque journeys are the expression of tourism in the middle of the XIXth century. The time spent by Queen Victoria in Killarney in 1861 constitutes a revealing event of the celebrity of these landscapes as well as in the tourist frequentation of the region: a point of view, Ladies' View, opened on the glaciated valley of Killarney offers one of the most famous and frequented sites in the Park. A first inventory of these geomorphosites including physical and cultural characters associated to landforms (Panizza, 2004; Reynard, 2005), will allow to bring to light the role of landforms and geomorphological landscapes in the creation of the Killarney National Park and more widely, between society and its landforms environment.

Domaines

Géographie
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Dates et versions

hal-04683800 , version 1 (02-09-2024)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04683800 , version 1

Citer

Claire Portal. Landscapes, landforms and geomorphological heritage in Killarney National Park: a first inventory of irish ‘geomorphosites’. Ireland : paysages / landscapes, SOFEIR - Société Française d'Études Irlandaises, Mar 2010, Nantes, France. ⟨hal-04683800⟩
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