The River Liffey spurts from the bogs around Kippure Mountain as a small spring some 8km north-east of Kippure Estate.
The source is situated about 580m or 1800ft over sea level and the Liffey ‘pot’ is about 10m in from the Military Road at Liffey Head Bridge, which is about halfway between Glencree cross and the Sallygap. The blanket peat area in the vicinity of the source of the Liffey is known as Liffey Head Bog and is regarded as internationally a very important blanked bog habitat. The Liffey Head Bridge ‘looks up’ directly at the well-known landmark of the RTÉ mast sitting on top of Kippure Mountain. Just one kilometre on the Dublin side of the Liffey Head bridge is a magnificent example of a Glacial Corrie lake (Lough Bray Upper). Nearby on the roadside is the cottage of the famous play-wright and poet John Millington Synge, author of ‘Riders to the sea’, ‘Playboy of the Western World’, ‘The Tinker’s Wedding’ etc.
The fledgling Liffey drops down very fast as it enters the upper Liffey valley and after meandering for about 6.4km it crosses the R759 (Sally Gap Road) and then runs alongside and forms a boundary for about 1.5km between the Wicklow Mountains National Park, the Coronation Plantation and Kippure Estate.
From an archaeological point of view, it is accepted that some of our first ancestors 7/8000 years ago made their way from the Irish Sea across the Wicklow Mountains to the area of the Sally Gap – down by Corrig Mountain and onto the Upper Liffey Valley along by Kippure Estate and the Coronation Plantation. Today, hut sites and Fulachta Fia (cooking pits) are to be found in the Coronation Plantation area and downstream. At Kippure bridge another major brook, the Athdown Brook, which drains Seefin Mountain flows into the Liffey at Kippure Estate.
Liffey Bridge
Two kilometres further on is a very major special bridge spanning the Liffey. The story of this bridge forms the centre piece of this blogpost connecting the historic affairs of the 1847/8 period to a tragic drowning of a local Garda at that same bridge in Oct. 2011 – 164 years after it was built – when that bridge was destroyed.
At this point, I will direct the reader’s attention to an afternoon in 1847 when the Liffey Bridge was officially opened by his honour the Marquis of Downshire, Lord of Blessington Estates.
Background to 1840s Ireland
All power at that time lay with the landlords. They prospered while so-called peasantry or tenants died of hunger and disease in the great Irish Famine 1845-47. More than 1 million died and within 4 years another million had emigrated, mostly in coffin ships to the US. This mass exodus of a nation is now in 2015 mirrored in migration across the Mediterranean in coffin ships to Europe with dire consequences we read off and see on our TV screens.
In 1848 the landlords were the equivalent of the Local Co. Council of the time – in the 1840s a County Council as we know them did not exist. Their decisions were for the benefit of the Lords, not for the peasants.
In 1848 north-west Wicklow land ownership was dominated by Lord (the Marquis) of Downshire who owned 20,000 acres stretching from Blessington to the mountainous areas opposite Kippure Estate. The river Liffey for 6.5km acted as the boundary between Lord Downshire’s 20,000 acre Blessington Estates and the 10,000 acre Moore-Armstrong Estate which stretched from Manor Kilbride (The Manor) past Cloughleagh (St John’s Church) to Kippure Estate. Kippure Estate was then leased by William Jones Armstrong and was then called Kippure Park. Other local landlords in the Blessington area included the Leeson’s of Russborough House, Capt Hornidge of Tulfarris, Col. Smith, Mr Finnemore etc.
The Downshires – Blessington and Hillsborough Castle
Besides the Downshires owning 20,000 acres (as noted) around Blessington, they also held 16,000 acres in Edenderry, Co. Offaly, and about 40,000 acres in north Co. Down and Armagh. At this point the Downshire family name was Hill and their main residence was Hillsborough Castle in Hillsborough, Co. Down. The 3rd Marquis died (1853) outside the gates of Kippure Estate and Mr Armstrong organised the funeral procession to Hillsborough where thousands attended the funeral. The square in Blessington has a special monument dedicated to Lord Downshire’s coming of age. It is of interest to note that the Northern Ireland peace agreement was signed was at Hillsborough Castle (The Good Friday agreement) – now the home of the Governor of Northern Ireland.
Blessington would have been a landlord-designed town and very loyal to king and country. During the 1798 rebellion the Blessington House (or Palace) was burnt by the rebels.
The Military Road
Military Road Wicklow
The Military Road, referred to in the first chapter, was built by the British army in the aftermath of the 1798 rising. The road extended for about 80 miles from Rathfarnham in Dublin to Clonegal in County Carlow. Glencree Barracks was one of four built along this stretch of road. The strategy for building this road was to seek and destroy the Irish rebels of 1798 who were still active Wicklow Mountains. The road, which is built to the heart of the Wicklow Mountains from north to south, was an amazing engineering feat for the army at that time. A drive along its stretch from Glencree Cross to Larragh is very worthwhile as it will give the visitor an idea of the desolation and the beauty of this mountainous landscape.
The opening of the ‘Liffey Bridge’ in October 1847
See the attached copy of an article in the Dublin Evening Mail dated 7th October 1848.
A marvellous description of this occasion is recorded in The Mail of 1847. The language used is so flowery and to our way of thinking 120 years later somewhat ‘over the top’ but very descriptive. You will note how the peasantry (ordinary people) are described and seen as uncouth, rustic people in contrast to their betters the social class that was then the gentry. I quote some of the report from the Mail particularly as it applies to Kippure House, the dinners, the merriment and the dancing.
The distraction of Liffey Bridge in 2011
Lord Downshire’s bridge of 1848 remained in situ for 163 years until 2011. On 24 October 2011 a massive downpour of rain came over the mountains and with continuous rain for 7 hours the Liffey water at the bridge rose 3 metres. Ciarán Jones, a young 24-year-old Garda, lived close to the bridge and saw the huge rise in the water level. He could see cars approaching the bridge – he knew that the bridge was becoming unstable, so he rushed down (outside the call of duty) to stop cars coming down onto the bridge. He was standing on the bridge when suddenly the water came over the bridge and washed him over the side. His body was found 24 hours later some 6.5km downstream at Ballyward Bridge.
The re-instatement of the bridge
9 months later a new bridge was put in place to replace the Downshire-inspired Liffey Bridge. In honour of this local Garda, is now named the Ciarán Jones Bridge.
A special afternoon was set aside by Wicklow County Council for opening the reinstated bridge by county officials and Garda representatives under Supt George Kyne. We, the Kynes, as owners of Kippure Estate were present. Afterwards all 60 attendees at the opening retired to Kippure Estate for a meal and talk. By coincidence this meal replicated in a more modest manner the great celebrations described in the Mail newspaper of 1848. This time there was no dancing and no gentry in the refurbished Kippure House which was destroyed by fire in 1922 during the Civil War. History has a great way of repeating itself and we hope the Liffey or Ciarán Jones Bridge will continue to serve the public for hundreds of years to come.
How Ireland has changed in the 163 year period between 1848 – 2011! This is well illustrated in the attached copy of Dublin Evening Mail from 7th October 1848: “Laying of the first stone of the Liffey Bridge”.
The Athdown Moraine – Geological Feature
The Athdown moraine is a well known geological feature which runs all along the foot of Seefin Mountain. The walk to Seefin will first take you up through the green grassy fields which now blanket the moraine. The moraine itself is a big hulking mound about 1km long and 100m high and is made up of a mixture of sand, gravel, stones overlaid with a thin layer of boulder clay. The moraine is positioned where a major ice sheet sat during the last ice age 10,000 – 20,000 years ago. Our first ancestors came to Ireland about 8000 years ago (2000 years after the ice retreated). Some Stone Age people came ashore in Wicklow and crossed the mountains via the Sally gap and made their way down the Liffey Valley (along the edge of Kippure Estate) on their way to the midlands.
When the ice cap melted in the region of Kippure it left a glacial sediment deposit noted above. This deposit is known as a moraine – the surface of which is well drained dry and grassy. The moraine topography has flora and fauna that is different in comparison to that of the surrounding wet blanket peat (heather/Molinia etc) which forms a ‘blanket’ over the granite rocks of the surrounding mountains.
The Views
You will get a view from the top fields of the moraine to the heart of the Wicklow Mountains (the largest mountain range in Ireland and largest National Park (25,000Htc) – Wicklow Mountains National Park).
Wicklow hills landscape
Ask your guide to point out The Coronation Plantation, The Sally Gap, The Military Road, and the rounded peaks (glaciation affect) of Kippure, Corrig, Gravale, War Hill, Duff Hill, Black Hill, Mullaghcliabháin (with its corrie lake) and Sorrel Hill (Cairn on top) with the Blessington Lakes in the distance.