Killarney National Park (), near the town of Killarney, County Kerry, was the first national park in Ireland, created when the Muckross Estate was donated to the Irish Free State in 1932. The park has since been substantially expanded and encompasses over 102.89 km<sup>2</sup> (25,425 acres) of diverse ecology, including the Lakes of Killarney, oak and yew woodlands of international importance, and mountain peaks. It has the only red deer herd on mainland Ireland and the most extensive covering of native forest remaining in Ireland. The park is of high ecological value because of the quality, diversity, and extensiveness of many of its habitats and the wide variety of species that they accommodate, some of which are rare. The park was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1981. The park forms part of a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service is responsible for the management and administration of the park.
and recreation and tourism amenities are provided for. A major geological boundary between Devonian Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous limestone lies in the park. The underlying geology of the majority of the park is sandstone, with the limestone pavements occurring on the low eastern shore of Lough Leane. Mean daily temperatures range from a low of in January to a high of in July. The park experiences high rainfall and changeable fronts, with light showery rainfall being frequent throughout the year. approximately 10,000 years ago. Humans have lived in the area since at least the Bronze Age, approximately 4,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found evidence that copper mining took place in the Ross Island area during this period, which suggests that the area was of considerable importance to Bronze Age people. The park has many archaeological features, including a well preserved stone circle at Lissivigeen. In 1780 Young famously described Derrycunihy wood as "a great sweep of mountain, covered partly in wood, hanging in a very noble manner, but part cut down, much of it mangled, and the rest inhabited by coopers, boat-builders, carpenters and turners..".. and the Muckross estate was purchased by Lord Ardilaun of the Guinness brewing family in 1899.
Creation of the park
In 1910, the American William Bowers Bourn bought Muckross Estate as a wedding present for his daughter Maud on her marriage to Arthur Vincent. They spent £110,000 improving the estate between 1911 and 1932, building the Sunken Garden, the Stream Garden, and a rock garden on an outcrop of limestone. The Act required the Commissioners of Public Works to "maintain and manage the Park as a National Park for the purpose of the recreation and enjoyment of the public".
Around 1970 there was public disquiet about threats to the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park. The Irish authorities looked at international practices in classifying and managing of national parks. It was decided to expand and re-designate the park as a national park that corresponded broadly to IUCN Category II. A decision was also made to establish other national parks in Ireland. Almost has been added to the original park, including the three lakes, Knockreer Estate, Ross Island, Innisfallen, and the townlands of Glena, Ullauns, and Poulagower. As the Irish economy became wealthier and the perception of the role of national parks changed, much more money was made available to the park. Sport angling on the lakes has been a pastime in the area for some time, in particular of the lakes' brown trout and salmon populations.
Lough Leane is approximately in size and is by far the largest of the three lakes. It is also the lake richest in nutrients. It has become eutrophic as a result of phosphates from agricultural and domestic pollution entering Lough Leane Reedbed, an important habitat on the edge of Lough Leane. This nutrient enrichment has caused several algal blooms in recent years. The blooms have not yet had a severe effect on the lake's ecosystem. To prevent further pollution causing a permanent change in the lake's ecosystem, a review of land use in the catchment area is being carried out. Yew woodlands are one of the rarest types of woodland in Europe, mostly restricted to western Ireland and southern England. It has priority habitat status under Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive. It is the only significant area of yew woodland in Ireland and is one of just three pure yew woodlands in Europe. The soil in the wood is mostly thin and in many places the trees are rooted to fissures in the bare limestone. This is one of the most extensive areas of this woodland type in Ireland. The dominant canopy species here are alder (Alnus glutinosa), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), downy birch (Betula pubescens), and willow (Salix spp.). The park has been designated a biosphere reserve because of the presence of such rare species.
Significant amounts of plant species found in the park have unusual geographic distributions and are of localised occurrence within Ireland. These plant species are grouped within four main categories: arctic-alpine plants, Atlantic species, North American species and very rare species. Atlantic species are species which are otherwise found mostly in southern and south-western Europe, for example arbutus, St Patrick's cabbage and greater butterwort. North American species include blue-eyed grass and pipewort. an increase from less than 100 individuals in 1970. They are found in upland areas of the park, mostly on Mangerton and Torc mountains. This herd has been continuously in Ireland for 4,000 years, since the return of red deer to the island, possibly aided by humans, after the last ice age, including upland, woodland and wintering waterfowl species. Despite a poisoning incident in 2009, the program is continuing and birds introduced to the area have now been tracked to Wicklow and Donegal.
Fish species
The Lakes of Killarney contain many brown trout and an annual run of salmon. Rare species found in the lakes are Arctic char and Killarney shad.
The Killarney shad (or goureen) (Alosa fallax killarnensis) is a land-locked lake-dwelling subspecies of twaite shad, a mostly marine species. It is unique to the Lakes of Killarney. It is rarely seen because it feeds mainly on plankton and thus is rarely caught by fishers. It is listed in the Irish "Red Data Book" of threatened species.
The oak woods in the remote Glaism na Marbh valley are a stronghold for Formica lugubris Zett., a wood ant species that is rare both in the Killarney woods and in Ireland as a whole.
Fires caused by human activity occur with some frequency in the park. Despite the wet climate, they can spread quite rapidly to cover large areas. These fires rarely penetrate areas covered by dense woodlands, but they do burn readily through stands of open woodland.
The main land use within the site is grazing by sheep. It is an evergreen shrub with a natural distribution in the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas. Rhododendrons died out in Ireland because of climate change thousands of years ago.