For over 150 years geologists and geographers have been puzzled by the fact that the Munster Blackwater made a 90° turn at Cappoquin to flow south to Youghal Harbour instead of continuing in its hitherto easterly direction and so reach Dungarvan Harbour. There seemed to be no great physical obstruction through the whole River Brickey valley to Dungarvan whereas there were four Old Red Sandstone anticlines to be breached between Cappoquin and Youghal.
To get a view of this from the surface of the Blackwater itself 12 members of the C.G.A. set out on a boat trip from Youghal to Cappoquin on a sunny September afternoon. Our leader was fellow member James Curtin who provided us with masterly comprehensive notes on the views of experts on the anomaly down through the years.
J.B.Jukes, in 1862, proposed a theory that the present north-south flowing stretch of the Blackwater is very old and that there was a section of it directly north of Cappoquin that does not exist anymore. Also he thought that the present west-east flowing upper reaches of the river were only a tributary of the original Blackwater. Later other geologists disagreed. G.H. Kinehan said that a crustal fissure determined the course of the river south from Cappoquin. Hull thought there must have been a physical barrier east of Cappoquin.. Lewis and Porter blamed a moraine or glacial ice for the 90º bend. These people did not have the detailed knowledge of the earlier geological periods that is available today.
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Eventually in 1975 Gordon Herries Davies and J.B.Whittow came forward with a theory directly opposite to Jukes’ idea. They argue that the west-east flowing Blackwater above Cappoquin is the older section and the north-south flowing river to Youghal is the newer part, due to the erosion of Carboniferous rocks and the resulting formation of a new drainage system in the karstic landscapes
Our boat set out from the quays at Youghal and went under the bridge into a wide section of the river with the wooded slopes of the anticline on both banks. The anticlines and synclines were clearly discernible. It was quite a scenic trip with well-kept farmland and deciduous and coniferous woodland to be seen to the left and right. At last we came to the bend of the river. The modern buildings of Cappoquin reached down to the water’s edge and the foothills of the Knockmaldown Mountains stretched away to the north and a few men with rod and line waited patiently for the fish to bite. It was a really lovely peaceful sight in the evening sun.
Why the Munster Blackwater should make a right angle turn towards the south at this point is perplexing.. We should notice that while the River Brickey flows east southeast along the syncline to Dungarvan Harbour four tributaries from the east join the Blackwater south of the bend. Is Jukes' theory the correct one? Are all the faults and fissures in the area the real caiuse? Or erosion, ice action or changing land levels? Or maybe more than one of all these reasons?
