Benbulbin

Benbulbin, every now and then spelled Ben Bulben or Benbulben, is a big flat-topped rock formation in County Sligo, Ireland. It is a part of the Dartry Mountains, in an area every now and then referred to as "Yeats Country". Benbulbin is a protected web site, specific as a County Geological Site by means of Sligo County Council. Benbulbin, and the Dartry Mountains as a whole, are composed of limestones on pinnacle of mudstones. These rocks shaped within the area approximately 320 million years ago in a shallow sea. Uppermost inside the limestone layer is a thicker, tougher limestone called the Dartry Limestone Formation.

Below that is a thinner transitional limestone formation – the Glencar Limestone Formation. Further down, the lower slopes include shaly mudstone referred to as the Benbulben Shale Formation. Scree deposits are determined close to the bottom. Fossils exist at some stage in the layers of the mountains. All layers have many fossilised sea shells. The shale layer also holds some corals. Baryte became mined at Glencarbury near Benbulbin in the Dartry range among 1894 and 1979.