Geography of the Emerald Island

Ireland is an island situated in the extreme northwest side of Europe between 51.5 and 55.5 degrees north latitude and between 5.5 and 10.5 degrees west longitude. The Irish Sea to the east separates Ireland from Britain; the sea is from 17.6 to 192 km (11 to 120 miles) wide and has a maximum depth of about 200 metres (650 feet). Around the other coasts the shallow waters of the Continental Shelf are rather narrow and depths increase rapidly into the Atlantic Ocean.
Ireland has four provinces, which are divided into a total of 32 counties, 26 that are part of the Republic of Ireland and 6 that make up Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland covers 70,282 sq. km (27,136 sq.mi.) and consists of Munster, Leinster, Connacht and three counties of Ulster, making a total of 26 counties governed by The Republic. Northern Ireland is only 5,500 square miles in area - about the size of Yorkshire or Connecticut - and is made up of the remaining 6 counties of Ulster.
The island is comprised of large central lowland made up of limestone and hills surrounded by a border of mountains around the coast of varying structure. The southern mountain ridges are red sandstone separated by limestone river valleys. The mountains of Galway, Mayo and Donegal in the west and northwest and in Counties Down and Wicklow on the east coast are mainly granite, while the northeast of the country is a basalt plateau. The central plain has occasional low hills but the earth is clay and sand as a result of glacial deposits. There are many bogs and numerous lakes. The island has had at least two glaciations and ice-smoothed rock, mountain lakes, glacial valleys and deposits of glacial sand, gravel and clay mark the passage of the ice. The highlands of the north, west, and south are generally barren and rise more than 3,000 ft (914 m). The central plain is extremely fertile and the climate is warmed by southwesterly winds making it temperate and moist.

Ireland's 485 km (302 miles) at it greatest length and it is 304 km (189 miles) at its widest point. The highest mountain is Carrantuohill (1,040 metres/3'414 feet), near Killarney in County Kerry. The longest river is the Shannon (370 km/230 miles, including estuary), which opens, in county Limerick, at the sea. Ireland has 800 lakes and rivers and 5,631 km (3,500 mi.) of coastline, so you are never more than 70 miles from the sea. The largest lake is Lough Neagh (396 ssq km/153 ss.quare miles) in the North and is bordered by counties Armagh, Down, Antrim, Derry and Tyrone.