County Cork Geology
The Blackwater, after bending south at Cappoquin, enters a deep ravine, the sides of which rise to between 300 and 400 ft. Now if a dam 80 ft. high were formed across the river at Dromana, it would, after forming a lake about Cappoquin, make its way to the sea at Dungarvan. Similarly if the east and west passages of the Lee were blocked the river would go along by Midleton to Ballycottin Bay. The Bandon too, under similar circumstances, would find an outlet by the Owenboy valley and enter the sea at Cork Harbour by Carrigaline.
South of the valley of the Blackwater the limestone remains only in a few narrow valley bottoms, and we find ourselves in almost continuously broken country, which gets more and more mountainous as we go west- ward. The first portion of the hilly country which we meet is the upland which lies between the Blackwater and Lee valleys in Co. Cork. Through a transverse through valley near its eastern end the main line of railway finds its way southward to Cork.