Geology in Longford
The oldest rocks at the surface arr the Ordovician and Silurian shales and sandstones, exposed in the hummocky country about Lough Gowna in Co. Longford as a part of the broad triangular outcrop that readies the sea in Co. Down. They appear again in the cores of the Slieve Bloom Mountains and of the anticline of Slievenaman on the Kilkenny and Tipperary border, and also in south-eastern Kilkenny. Longford ( Self Catering, Longford, Ireland) town is pleasantly placed on the west side of one of these upfolds. Three or four small exposures occur near Moate and Tullamore. The highest crests of the Slieve Bloom Mountains (1600-1750 ft.) lie in West Leinster, and the broad dome feeds numerous rivers from its slopes. Natural basins are formed by the erosion of softer Silurian strata near the crests of the Armorican upfolds.