Turlough Hill - The Mountain

The Mountain

The historian Liam Price recorded that the mountain was known locally as Tomaneena; Turlough Hill is the name given to it by the ESB when they surveyed the site for the pumped-storage scheme. It is 681 metres (2,234 feet) high and is the 136th highest summit in Ireland. The summit is located to the south-west of the upper reservoir and is easily reached via the tarmac access road that begins at the top of the Wicklow Gap. It is also possible to reach the summit from Glendalough or from the summits of neighbouring Camaderry and Conavalla mountains.

The underlying geology of the mountain is granite, covered with blanket bog, which is a habitat for heather, purple moor grass and Sphagnum moss. A number of alpine plants grow near the summit: dwarf willow, cowberry, crowberry, fir clubmoss and common bilberry. To the north-east of the summit, at the head of Glendasan valley, is Lough Nahanagan (Irish: Loch na hOnchon, meaning "Lake of the Water Monster"), a corrie lake carved by a glacier at the end of the last ice age.

Read more about this topic:  Turlough Hill

Famous quotes containing the word mountain:

    And though in tinsel chain and popcorn rope
    My tree, a captive in your window bay,
    Has lost its footing on my mountain slope
    And lost the stars of heaven, may, oh, may
    The symbol star it lifts against your ceiling
    Help me accept its fate with Christmas feeling.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    If I am to be a thoroughfare, I prefer that it be of the mountain brooks, the Parnassian streams, and not the town sewers. There is inspiration, that gossip which comes to the ear of the attentive mind from the courts of heaven. There is the profane and stale revelation of the barroom and the police court. The same ear is fitted to receive both communications. Only the character of the hearer determines to which it shall be open, and to which closed.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)