Wild Nephin

Wild Nephin National Park was established in 1998 in County Mayo, in western Ireland, and protects some 110 km². For years it was known as Ballycroy and took its present name after the addition of adjoining forestry land.

Its main asset is one of the largest expanses of intact blanket bog in western Europe. That habitat, formed over millennia by the accumulation of sphagnum under a permanently wet oceanic climate, covers the ground like a continuous blanket over the relief, slopes included, and is drained by the river Owenduff, one of the few unaltered bog river systems left in Europe. To the east rise the Nephin Beg mountains.

The park is also one of the few places in Europe with practically no light pollution: in 2016 it was recognised as an International Dark Sky Reserve at gold tier, and astronomical observation has become one of its attractions. Recent management has taken on a rewilding approach, with the progressive removal of the exotic conifer plantations put in during the twentieth century over the bog in order to return the ground to its natural state.