52°24′N8°24′W / 52.4°N 8.4°W /52.4; -8.4
TheGolden Vale (Irish:Machaire méith na Mumhan)[1] is the historic name given to an area of rollingpastureland in the province ofMunster in southwesternIreland. The area covers parts of three counties:Cork,Limerick andTipperary. Considered the best land in Ireland fordairy farming, the region has been described as the "heart of the Munsterdairying country".[1][2]
The Golden Vale is bordered in the east by theGaltee Mountains, with theGlen of Aherlow as a picturesque abutting valley. TheMunster Blackwater valley is the Vale's southern part. Towns in the Golden Vale includeCharleville,Mitchelstown,Kilmallock andTipperary.[2]
Historically it has been called theGolden Vein. An early instance is an 1837 book by Jonathan Binns, a British government official, where he refers to the area as '"the golden vale" (more correctly the "golden vein")'[3] and states "The land is of excellent quality, being part of the golden vein of Ireland—a district reaching from Tipperary towards Limerick. The extent of the golden vein is about fourteen miles long, by six or seven wide." (i.e. 23 × 10 km; an area of 58,000 acres or 236 km2)[4] Some subsequent writers similarly prefer "vein".[2][5][6]
In 1739,Walter Harris suggested the "Golden" name was a corruption ofGowlin,[7] former name of a village now calledGolden, fromIrish:An Gabhailín "little fork [in theRiver Suir]".[8]
"Machaire méith na Mumhan", usually referred to as the Golden Vale, the richest dairy land in Ireland
The Golden Vein (sometimes called the Golden Vale) consists of the lowlands of Co. Limerick with an extension towards Tipperary and Cashel and a southward extension to the neighbourhood of Charleville and Mallow. In effect it is the heart of the Munster dairying country.
the relatively broad hollow called the Vale of Limerick, and sometimes known as the "Golden Vale" or, more correctly, the "Golden Vein".
North Cork, County Limerick and West Tipperary areas, in other words, the rich and fertile land of the "Golden Vein" (now incorrectly termed "Golden Vale" — there is no vale).
