The Lee Valley describes the part of Cork County stretching from Gougane Barra in the west where the river Lee begins to the mouth of the Shournagh River where it becomes tidal. It drains an area of around 438 square miles (~1,120 sq.Km), and includes the catchment area of the Sullane. The area is approximately rectangular in shape, about 31 miles long by 14 miles wide.
The scenery is mainly shaped by glaciation; A feature that cannot go unnoticed for long, especially in the Western part of the valley, is the predominance of large smooth rock outcrops. These were shaped by glacial action and still show scrapes from the detritus pushed over them by the ice-flow
The central part of the valley is a land of lakes, sometimes known as the Inchigeelagh Lake District, partly natural and partly enlarged by hydro-electric and water-supply schemes. The Gearagh is an Oak forest, flooded in the 1950s for this purpose and now a uniquely attractive wildlife reserve. All kinds of watersports thrive in the area.
The area is full of prehistoric sites and also rich in Holy Wells and Shrines, mostly probably pre-Christian, but adopted and incorporated into the religion of the present residents. Also, sadly, in parts there is evidence of pre-famine settlement, now often just a scattering of rocks on fields, which hardly show a pattern of the buildings they once belonged to. Common too are ruins and memorials left by recent conflicts, remembered and hopefully learnt from.

Click here for larger scale map