To log this EarthCache you will need to answer the following questions:
- What type of rock is the dark grey band?
- Roughly how thick is it from top to bottom?
- What is the word below 'Mourne' on the ‘Bearna Na Gaoithe' sign?
- Optionally, please include a photo with you, or a nametag, or equipment at the ‘Bearna Na Gaoithe' sign.
The GPS signal here can be a bit bouncy, especially if you are using a mobile phone. However, you should be standing on the Western edge of the road opposite a traffic sign.
Take the opportunity to look around you and be aware of your location. The site is associated with the ‘Táin Bó Cuailgne’ myth that Maeve’s army crossed the mountains here, tearing up the ground to insult the Ulster army. This legendary explanation is not so far from the geological truth: the ‘gap’ at Windy Gap is due to a fault zone running roughly along the line of the road on which you are standing. Movement along the fault has driven different rock types against one another: to the west is granite, and to the east, gabbro.
If you have done many EarthCaches you will have read a lot about Granite so just take it as read that the lighter, often ‘rusty’ colour rock in front of you (facing West) is granite. Look instead for the dark grey band sloping roughly downwards from right to left (North to South). This is a fine grained sheet of basalt which was forced by volcanic activity into the existing granite rock. Darker margins on the sheet indicates a finer grain size caused by chilling of the basaltic magma as it was thrust into the granite.
Visualise the molten or partially molten rock (Magma) as toffee and think how that ‘flows’ if you bend it slowly but fractures in a brittle manner if you deform it rapidly (e.g. hit against a hard surface).
No matter how solid the rocks seem today, you are looking here at granite that fractured and allowed basalt to flow into the space created.
Congratulation to DAISY PEACH on being First To Find this EarthCache.