SEVERAL TONNES of peat moved yesterday onto a road which had been cleared and reinstated after last month's major landslide in north Kerry. The latest mudslide is a blow to hopes that soil in the area had settled.
Heavy rainfall was being blamed for the latest soil movement in the Maughanknockane area of the Stack's Mountains.
However, this was heaped peat from the earlier slide and it was felt unlikely any new boglands had moved.
The slippage which occurred at lunchtime blocked the eyes of Scanlons' bridge over the Glashoreag river and spilled on to the road. A council spokesman said that in comparison with the previous slide on August 22nd, this latest movement was "a minor slippage" and a fraction of the earlier one.
The Raemore to Kilduff local road was once again closed. Only days ago it had been chipped, tarred and completely reinstated.
Council workers were clearing the road last night and digging channels to relieve the river, an important spawning and nursery river for two of the county's finest salmon and sea trout angling rivers, the Smearlagh and the Feale.
The initial slide had brought at least 20 acres from the Ballincollig Hill/Maghanknockane uplands of blanket bog down onto roads, farmland and watercourse.
Public water sourced from the Smearlagh river, supplying about 4,000 people, has had to be discontinued and replaced with an alternative supply. However the Feale river supply, which was initially affected and which supplies the towns of Listowel and Ballybunion, has continued.
Anglers in the area have joined with the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board in closing the Smearlagh for the remainder of this fishing season at least. With all nursery stock wiped out in the Glashoreag anglers fear fish populations will be affected for years.
Two investigations are being conducted into the slide. One study has been commissioned by the county council and a second by the developers of a wind farm in the area.
Tra Investments Ltd, Tralee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lee Strand Co-operative Creamery which had begun site works for an eight-turbine wind farm at Ballincollig Hill/Maghanknockane, said they are to make their findings public.
Meanwhile, the village of Ardfert, northwest of Tralee, was flooded yesterday. Sandbags were distributed to homes and businesses. Local resident Martin Ferris TD said the sewerage pipes were too narrow and were unable to cope with the surface water created by the rainfall.