May 2013 Explore Galway’s Natural History with new Guidebook by NUI Galway

A new guidebook has been published by NUI Galway’s School of Natural Sciences to help people explore the natural history of the Galway area. The booklet was produced as part of NUI Galway’s EXPLORE initiative that promotes and sponsors innovation through student and staff collaboration.

Entitled Self Guided Fieldtrip – Galway Area, the booklet was compiled by Alina Wieczorek, a third year undergraduate student with the School of Natural Sciences, and Professor Martin Feely, Earth and Ocean Science at NUI Galway.

The tour includes a visit to the James Mitchell Museum, in NUI Galway’s Quadrangle Building, to introduce the rocks, minerals and fossils of the Galway area and from around the globe. The guide highlights the natural history resource that is the coastal zone stretching from Galway city westwards to Salthill and beyond. The reader can explore the natural history by using the supplied map and the many field illustrations of bedrock geology, and the flora and fauna that live on the bedrock substrate highlighting the inextricable links between the Natural Sciences of Geology, Botany and Zoology.

Those who engage with the guide are encouraged to share and discuss their discoveries through the webpage, www.exploregalway.npage.eu. A downloadable version of the guide is also available on this webpage. For a hard copy, visit NUI Galway’s James Mitchell Museum in the Quadrangle Building, or the Zoology Museum  in the Ryan Institute, or ask for it in the Earth and Ocean Sciences office on the second floor of the Quadrangle. The museums are open Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm.

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