The Golden Vale (Irish: Machaire méith na Mumhan) is an area of rolling pastureland in the civil province of Munster, southwestern Ireland. Covering parts of three counties, Limerick, Tipperary and Cork, it is the best land in Ireland for dairy farming.
Historically, and occasionally still, it has been called the Golden 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")' 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." Some subsequent writers similarly prefer "vein".
The Golden Vale is bordered in the west by the Galtee Mountains, with the Glen of Aherlow as a picturesque abutting valley. The Munster Blackwater valley is the Vale's southern part. Towns in the Golden Vale include Charleville, Mitchelstown, Kilmallock, and Tipperary.
In recent years intensive farming has resulted in the loss of many miles of hedgerows. The Golden Vale also contains a number of visitor farms.
Famous quotes containing the words golden and/or vale:
“How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tale,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“In the vale of restless mind
I sought in mountain and in mead,
Trusting a true love for to find.”
—Unknown. Quia Amore Langueo (l. 1–3)