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.