Killarney National Park

Ireland’s first national park, created in 1932 when the Muckross Estate was given to the Irish Free State, since expanded to over 102 square kilometres. It holds the Lakes of Killarney, oak and yew woodlands of international importance, and mountain peaks, and it carries the most extensive native forest left in the country along with the only red deer herd on mainland Ireland. UNESCO made it a Biosphere Reserve in 1981, and it forms part of both a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area. Conservation is the stated first objective.