Turlough Hill
Mountain and hydroelectric plant in Wicklow, Ireland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Turlough Hill (Irish: Cnoc an Turlaigh, meaning 'Hill of the Turlach'),[2] also known as Tomaneena (Irish: Tuaim an Aonaigh, meaning 'mound of the assembly/fair'),[1] is a 681-metre-high (2,234 ft) mountain in County Wicklow in Ireland and site of Ireland's only pumped-storage hydroelectricity plant. The power station is owned and operated by the ESB and can generate up to 292 megawatts (392,000 hp) of electricity at times of peak demand.
| Turlough Hill (Cnoc an Turlaigh) | |
|---|---|
| Tomaneena (Tuaim an Aonaigh) | |
The upper reservoir on Turlough Hill, viewed from Tonelagee | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 681 m (2,234 ft)[1] |
| Prominence | 54 m (177 ft)[1] |
| Coordinates | 53°01′27″N 6°24′59″W[1] |
| Geography | |
  Turlough Hill (Cnoc an Turlaigh) Location in Ireland | |
| Location | County Wicklow, Ireland |
| Parent range | Wicklow Mountains |
| OSI/OSNI grid | T063982 |
| Topo map | OSI Discovery No. 56 |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | Access road to north of summit |
The mountain
The historian Liam Price recorded that the mountain was known locally as Tomaneena;[3] Turlough Hill is the name given to it by the ESB when they surveyed the site for the pumped-storage scheme.[4] It is 681 metres (2,234 ft) high and is the 136th highest summit in Ireland.[1] 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.[5] It is also possible to reach the summit from Glendalough or from the summits of neighbouring Camaderry and Conavalla mountains.[6]
The underlying geology of the mountain is granite, covered with blanket bog, which is a habitat for heather, purple moor grass and sphagnum moss.[7] A number of alpine plants grow near the summit: dwarf willow, cowberry, crowberry, fir clubmoss and common bilberry.[8] 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'),[9] a corrie lake carved by a glacier at the end of the last ice age.[10]
The pumped-storage scheme
The Turlough Hill Power Station is owned and operated by the Electricity Supply Board (ESB).[11] Construction commenced in 1968, and the station became fully operational in 1974.
Name
Whilst the original name is Tomaneena, renaming it ‘Turlough Hill’ has a certain validity. The pumped storage station draws water from the mountain top lake, which thus becomes a ‘dry lake’. There is a geological feature known as a Turlough; it is defined as "(in Ireland) a low-lying area on limestone which becomes flooded in wet weather through the welling up of groundwater from the rock. Origin late 17th cent.: from Irish turloch, from tur ‘dry’ + loch ‘lake’."[12]
