Kippure is a prominent landmark mountain on the South Dublin-Wicklow county boundary, and is a familiar sight to all Leinster hillwalkers. It is the highest summit in the Dublin Mountains as can be seen in the County Highpoints list. Kippure is 32nd highest peak in Ireland according to the MountainViews Highest 100 list. It is also fearured in the Arderins and Vandeleur-Lynam lists. To climb Kippure you can start from the Kippure Transmitter Gate.

Map of the area

The summit of Kippure consists of extensively eroded peat, exposed granite sands and granite blocks. Its peak is capped by the 127 metre(m) high TV transmitter mast and the now unoccupied control station. At an elevation of 757m, Kippure sits between two large valleys: the valley of Glencree (part of County Wicklow) to the east, which it forms with Tonduff (642m), Maulin (570m) and Knocknagun (555m) and the valley of Glenasmole (part of Dublin) to the north, which it forms with Seefingan (724m), Seefin (621m) and Corrig Mountain (617m).

Kippure in Irish

The origin of Kippure's Irish name "Cipiúr" is somewhat obscure and much debated, some claiming the translation means "a place of yew trees". Another old Irish name "Ciop Mhor" (Big Hill) may be a closer translation and could also mean a great expanse of coarse mountain grass. Before 1825, a pole was placed at the summit of many mountains, including Kippure. This was for visual surveying and triangulation measurements. This pole predated the trig pillar seen today, which dates from the 1930s. Thus, in the 1800's, the local inhabitants called Kippure "The Pole".

The locals called Kippure "The Pole"

The route up Kippure

Rivers

Kippure is the source of two of Dublin's most important rivers, the Liffey and the Dodder. These rivers were harnessed by dams many years ago to create reservoirs at Poulaphouca, Golden Falls, Leixlip and Bohernabreena, to provide drinking water and electricity to the greater Dublin area. The Liffey rises on the south side of Kippure about 580m above sea level. The actual spring is located about 10m from the Military Road at Liffey Head Bridge, about halfway between Glencree and the Sallygap crossroads. It flows into the Blessington reservoir where it is joined by King's River flowing from the south. The confluence then flows into County Kildare.

Lower Lough Bray

Along the Military Road near Lough Bray is the site of the famous McGuirk's Tea Rooms, a popular watering hole for walkers, artists, literati, and Bohemian types in the early 20th century. Amongst the many famous visitors to McGuirks were J.M Synge, Oliver St John Gogarty, Arthur Griffith, William Orpen, Austin Clarke, Harry Kernoff and many more. (See Michael Fewer's excellent recent book "Tales from a Wicklow Tea Room 1898 - 1960" for an interesting in-depth history of McGuirks).

McGuirk's Tea Rooms circa 1928. UCD Folklore Dept.

Geology and Topography

The Wicklow Mountains were shaped by two major geological processes: the intrusion and cooling of magma deep beneath the Earth's surface during the period roughly 490–390 million years ago, and later sculpting by Ice Age glaciation. The granite that dominates the range is an igneous rock, formed when molten rock cooled slowly underground, allowing large crystals of quartz, feldspar, and mica to develop. Over time, erosion exposed this granite at the surface. Many of Dublin’s notable public buildings were constructed from Wicklow granite.

The next natural event to shape the Wicklow mountains was the Ice Age. Massive ice sheets, thousands of metres thick, covered much of Ireland, creating an Ice Age or glacial period. The Ice Age and the subsequent melting of ice, thousands of years ago, resulted in the creation of valleys, rounded mountain peaks and lakes. As the ice melted, it scraped and eroded the colder north faces of the massifs leading to the formation of corrie lakes at the bottom of the mountain. Lower Lough Bray at the base of Kippure and the nearby Lough Tay, Lough Oular and Cleevaun Lough are all corrie lakes.

Extensive Blanket Bog at Kippure

At the end of the ice age, as the glaciers retreated, peatlands and bogs were formed at high latitudes. Peat is formed from crushed and compressed vegetation, when trees, mosses, grasses, heathers and other plants accumulate, under acidic and anaerobic (oxygen deprived) conditions. As it develops, the peat sucks in and traps water. This slowly creates extensive marshy wetlands known as blanket bog. Extensive bogland covers the flanks of Kippure. It is over six foot in depth in places with dangerous bog holes and wet marsh.

Cutting Turf

The blanket bog around Kippure and its valleys was extensively harvested during "The Emergency" (the state of emergency which existed in Ireland during the Second World War) to supply Dublin with fuel. The army, government-employed labourers and local day trippers cut turf on Kippure during the mid-1940s. A bog road was built at that time to allow access for the turf cutters. Locally known as Moat Road, this path is used by hill walkers nowadays as a route to Kippure's summit from a road entrance just above Glencree crossroads.

Promotion of Turf Cutting - Irish Press 1943

Folklore of Finn McCool

In ancient times, Kippure and the nearby Glenasmole valley and mountains were covered by trees, and according to legend, they were the local hunting grounds of Fionn Mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) and his band of followers, Na Fianna. The names of the nearby mountains Seefin (Seat of Finn), Seefingan (seat of young Finn) and Ballymorefinn attest to this alleged connection with the famed Finn McCool (who is also associated with the Giant's Causeway in Antrim and Fingal's Cave in Scotland). The "Finn McCool Stone" lies in Castlekelly bog in Glenasmole.

Finn McCool Stone, Castlekelly, Glenasmole

The Trig Pillar

The ordnance survey of 1825 used Kippure summit as one of its key measuring points. From the pole on the summit, triangulation measurements were made to other poles on other summits. The mapping was done by triangulation and by creating a series of primary triangles. Sightings were taken between stations using theodolites. Much of this work was done at night to reduce the distortion caused by heated air. A crucial part of this mapping of Ireland was the careful and accurate measurement of the Lough Foyle baseline triangle, stretching for 8 miles. This was the only baseline in the country that was actually measured. The work was completed over 60 days between September 1827 and November 1828. An original apparatus, "Colby's bar" was used to measure the baseline. This bar, called a "compensation bar", was extremely accurate and was a dual arrangement of brass and iron, The Lough Foyle Baseline was remeasured again in 1960, using a system of reflected microwave radio waves (tellurometry - a form of trilateration, where distances rather than angles are measured). The result differed from the 1828 value by only 2.5cm, a convincing demonstration of the precision of the original earlier survey. The concrete trig pillar familiar to today's hillwalkers was finally erected on Kippure in 1932 for subsequent trigonometrical surveys using theodolites.

The Trig Pillar in front of the TV mast

The Ordnance Survey of Ireland began their retriangulation of Ireland in 1959. Many of the points observed in the principal triangulation of the nineteenth century were incorporated in the new scheme. New triangulation stations, in the form of the familiar concrete pillars (trig pillars) seen on many hill tops, were erected at the time.

Telefís Éireann(T.E)

Ireland's national television station Telefís Éireann (T.E), as it was known then, opened on New Year's night 1961. In 1959, after a survey was completed by Radio Éireann engineers and the Office of Public Works (OPW), Kippure was selected as the site of the first TV mast on account of its height, its unobstructed view and its proximity to Dublin.

Work on site

The sixteen acre site around Kippure was bought from the Powerscourt estate. In 1959, clearing of the bog road and the building of a new 5km access road from the Military Road to the construction site at the summit began.

Pye Ireland were the overseers of the Kippure operation, and CG Cooney of Dublin were the building contractors. The mast would be 108m (355') above ground level at a total elevation of 262m (2820') on Kippure summit. A Norwegian firm (Huso Verft) was contracted to build the mast offsite and it arrived at Dublin port in June 1961 in thirteen sections each section 9m long and weighing tons. Work began clearing the site in October 1960, and erection of the mast began in June 1961.

One of the eight steel cable guy rope anchorage points

Eight large steel guy ropes supported the mast, while the mast itself was attached to a five foot square reinforced concrete base fixed into the granite bedrock. Expansion bolts and steel connecting rods were built into long holes drilled into the core of the mountain granite. The mast was painted bright yellow and was fitted with night obstruction lights at various heights. Due to deep snow, freezing fog and sub-zero temperatures on Kippure, work had to be suspended intermittently. The adjacent single story control room station was built on a reinforced concrete base and covered an area of 465 m² ( 5000 sq. feet). It had 18 modular units, comprising accommodation, living rooms, control rooms, stores, transmitter, transformer and test rooms. It was staffed by a minimum of three people. TV pictures were beamed by microwave link from giant paraboloid reflectors at Montrose studios to Kippure, which then broadcast them over the Leinster area and forwarded the signal to other transmitters around the country.

Five National Transmitters

By the summer of 1961, construction of the mast and station was completed. A test card with a picture of the round tower at Glendalough was used to test transmisision over a preparatory period of a few months. The transmitter was formally handed over on 5 September 1961 to the Radio Éireann Authority, who sent out the St Brigid’s cross symbol to television sets in the eastern area tuned to channel 7 until opening night on New Year’s Eve 1961. The cost of construction of the Kippure station was £105,000. Other transmitters were subsequently erected on other mountain peaks to radiate the TV transmission over the country.

The Big Snow

The winter of 1962/63 saw one of the heaviest and most prolonged snowstorms to hit the country for very many years. Continuous blizzards, with blankets of deep snow and huge drifts, covered the country for many weeks. The fledgling station at Kippure was entirely cut off and the access road was impassable to traffic because of 20-foot snowdrifts. The three men manning the station at Kippure were completely isolated and were snowed in for five days.

Skiing to Work at Kippure - January 1963

The big snow and the Kippure station featured prominently in the national newspapers in January of 1963, as TV transmission was often affected due to power line problems on the summit. Bulldozers attempted to clear the access path from the Military Road and An Oige helped with the delivery of supplies. Eventually helicopters were used for food drops. Employees had to use skis to access the station.

The Troubles - Security Issues

In the early 1970s, due to the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the increased activity of paramilitary groups, it was felt that the transmitter at Kippure should be protected. Hence, members of the defence forces were posted to the summit in 1971 to guard the station and the transmitter. A land rover brought three army members from McKee Barracks to Kippure for twelve-hour shifts. They were armed with rifles and machine guns to prevent anyone gaining unauthorised access to the station. Regular hillwalkers who ventured too close had to be intercepted daily and parked cars, belonging to hikers, had to be checked out. In September 1971, armed men gained access to the transmitter, assaulted the night staff and overpowered and tied up the FCA guards. The attackers left, taking the FCA guards’ guns and ammunition with them.

Irish Independent - Sept. 6th 1971

There was a strong public outcry following the raid and security at the station was immediately stepped up. No further security breaches took place at Kippure.

-- Tom Barragry