Golden Vale


The Golden Vale 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 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" ' 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 east 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. From Tipperary town, Aherlow, Bansha and Cahir, and then south to Mitchelstown, Kildorrery, Mallow and Charleville, this 'square' could be considered the best land in Ireland. In 1739, Walter Harris suggested the "Golden" name was a corruption of Gowlin, former name of a village now called Golden, from An Gabhailín "little fork in [the River Suir]".