Hill of Allen

Thanks to heritage week 2012, the tower on the top of the Hill of Allen is open this week. I was on a day's holidays so took the opportunity to take a wander up, it being a nice day and all. There's a car park at the base of the Hill which is usually blocked up, but it's open for the week at least.


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You can see in the satellite photo that most of the Hill has been removed at this stage, the quarry has fed many major road projects in the area as far as I know, but the tower is still in situ at the top. I remember going up here as a youngster with a friend who lived nearby, when the air was thick with the legend of Fionn Mac Cumhaill and the Fianna - the legend had it that this was their seat, and that Fionn himself was buried here.

So what's up there now? A walk uphill through a forest, with constant signage reminding walkers of the quarry to one side, leading up to a pretty impressive tower which was built as a folly between 1859 and 1863 - each of the 80-something stone steps has the name of a builder carved onto it.



As you get to the top, the tower is capped rather oddly (ignominiously?) by a squat conservatory type structure. Obviously this is to prevent damage to the castellations at the top, but it doesn't help you get a view of the surrounding flat countryside.



The tower is as yet untouched by the quarrying operations and is still impressive in its own right.

 

Unfortunately at the base of the tower the brambles are too high to get any sort of panorama, and at the top, well you're hemmed in a bit. That's the disappointing thing.

Fionn, Bran, agus Sceolan.

We really are blessed with the art, including public art, produced in this country. You only have to drive the motorways to see some beautiful work, including the ball at Naas, horse and rider at Sligo, some (recently stolen, shame) works on the M7 outside Monasterevin, and many many others the length and breadth of the country. A small percentage of public money from some projects is put aside to provide this art (I believe this was paid for as part of the proceeds from parking revenue in Newbridge), and it's a great thing - I hope art doesn't get too much more of a whittling in the near future.



Anyway, the most recent work I've seen is the work just off the Curragh (Ballymany) interchange south of Newbridge on the M7. By Lynn Kirkham, it's title is "Fionn Mac Cumhaill and his hounds" - more info here. It's a hugely impressive trio of steel, well, sculptures is the wrong word, but figures doesn't capture their majesty, and domination of the roundabout.

I love the styling on the figures, it's got a great martial feel to it, capturing the great legendary warrior and his transmuted nephews (Bran and Sceolan were once human nephews of Fionn) very well.



I hope the rest of my photos speak for themselves!