On the way up to Blackstairs Mountain from Cooliagh Gap, there is an area of peatland. Peat is an acidic soil type formed by slowly decaying plant life. Wet peat, called a bog, contains many unique species including the round-leaved sundew. These plants have adapted to the low levels of food in peat soils by evolving to eat insects. They use the sticky hairs on their leaves to trap their prey. The leaves slowly curl up and the plant digests the insects. Interestingly, sundews were once used to relieve coughs.
The fraughan plant, more commonly known as bilberry, grows well in peat soils and is common in the Blackstairs Mountains. The dark, purple berries appear in summer and have been used to make jams and tarts for a long time. The berries are rich in Vitamin C, and it was once thought that they helped to improve eyesight, including night vision, though the scientific evidence is unclear. There are stories of pilots eating bilberry jam before going on night missions during World War II.
Wolves were present and common in Ireland until the end of the 1700s but were hunted until they became extinct. People were paid for every wolf they killed and there were even professional wolf hunters at that time. The last wolf in Ireland is thought to have been killed in the Blackstairs Mountains. This 3D reconstruction is of a wolf specimen in the Natural History Museum in Dublin.
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