Clew Bay
Cuan Mó

• Overview
• History of INFOMAR Surveys
• Shaded Relief
• Fledermaus Views
• INFOMAR in Google Earth
• Data Access

Overview

Clew Bay is a large bay situated in Co. Mayo in the west of Ireland. It is approximately 27 km in an east west direction from Newport to Clare Island and 13 km from Mallaranny to Louisburgh in a north south direction. The eastern end of the bay is divided into Westport Bay to the south and Newport Bay to the north. Both of these smaller bays are dominated by a spectacular example of a drowned drumlin field. These elongate hills are composed of glacially derived sediments which were inundated by rising sea levels at the end of the last glaciation.

Folklore maintains that there is an island for every day of the year in the bay. There may be fewer than 365 visible above the water however, this INFOMAR survey reveals that there are many more drumlins that have been completely submerged beneath the water surface.

Photograph of drumlins in Clew Bay taken from the aeroplane during the INFOMAR lidar survey in 2003. (Click image for more detail)

At the western end of the bay lies Clare Island which is famous for an extensive biological survey that was under taken 1909 to 1911 to investigate the natural history of the island. In 1991, a new survey of the island began to examine the changes to the island over the course of the last century. This multidisciplinary survey includes broad subjects such as ecology, geology and heritage.

Location of Clew Bay in Co. Mayo, west coast of Ireland.

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History of INFOMAR Surveys

INFOMAR surveys of Clew Bay began in the summer of 2002. Tenix LADS performed a survey over a test area in the centre of the bay to determine the suitability of the lidar method to map the bay. Due to the shallow water in much of the bay, LiDAR was found to be a cost effective and safe method to survey the inner bay. In 2003, Tenix LADS returned to survey a large portion of the inner bay, totaling 198 km2. The remaining deeper waters of Clew Bay will be surveyed using shipbourne survey techniques in the coming years.

Coverage from survey legs undertaken to survey Clew Bay. (Click image for more detail)

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Shaded Relief

Shaded relief image of data collected in 2003 lidar survey showing both exposed and submerged drumlins in Clew Bay. Gaps (white areas) in the data occurred where the laser technology used in lidar surveys could not penetrate through the entire water column due to the water being too deep or decreased clarity in the water. (Click image for more detail)

Detail from shaded relief image showing area of drumlins with the area of drumlins above sea-level masked by the grey areas. The image clearly shows submerged drumlins to the west and also remnants of drumlins that have had their relief reduced by erosion. (Click image for more detail)

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Fledermaus Views

Perspective views of the drumlins in Clew Bay. The colour range represent water depths with blues (deeper water), cyan and green (shallow water). The yellow and red areas represent the portion of the drumlin that is above sea-level. (Click images for more detail)

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INFOMAR in Google Earth

To view and navigate around the Clew Bay dataset in Google Earth, click on the link below.

Clew LiDAR

Data Access

Full details outlining the process to gain access to datasets for the bay above or all INFOMAR data can be found in the INFOMAR | Data page of this website.

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