Wild Nephin National Park
national park in Ireland
Wild Nephin (Irish: Néifinn Fhiáin, NAY-FINN) is a national park in northwest County Mayo, Ireland. It includes much of the Nephin Beg Mountains and one of the largest expanses of peatland in Europe, consisting of 150 square kilometres of Atlantic blanket bog. It is a unique habitat with a diverse flora and fauna. It was established as Ballycroy National Park in 1998, then expanded and re-named in 2018, with plans to re-wild the additional lands acquired at Nephin Forest to the east of the Nephin Beg Mountains. Wild Nephin includes the most remote point of land on the Irish mainland. The park is a candidate Special Area of Conservation (cSAC) as part of a site known as the Owenduff/Nephin Complex. It is also a Special Protection Area and part of the Natura 2000 network.
History
The European Union Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), which was transposed into Irish law in 1997, lists certain habitats and species that the Irish Government was required to designate as SACs to ensure their protection. These habitats include blanket bogs. The bog at Ballycroy is especially important in this regard because it is one of the largest examples of a blanket bog habitat left in Western Europe.
The public source identifies “Wild Nephin National Park” as national park in Ireland. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wild, Nephin and National.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Wild Nephin National Park”, the useful work is to connect “national park in Ireland” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q805409. Authority coordinates are 54.017, -9.700. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1998, 2018, 2000 and 1997.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Wild Nephin National Park” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.