Wicklow Folk Tales by Brendan Nolan

Author:Brendan Nolan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752498102
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

17

WICKLOW

FOXES

Ghosts of times past may lurk about the lakes at Blessington and in particular at Poulaphouca, where the administrative boundary forms between the counties of Wicklow and neighbouring Kildare.

Twin valleys were flooded here in the 1940s to form a large reservoir for Dublin’s water needs and a hydroelectric facility at Poulaphouca gorge. Dozens of farmhouses were covered with water once their inhabitants had been housed elsewhere to make way for the stored water that came to the reservoir off the sloping Wicklow hills. In times of drought the remains of some of these house are exposed to view.

Where the dam now stands tall, an unimpeded natural waterfall existed that was formed by the descent of the River Liffey through a narrow opening in a craggy precipice, falling from a height of upwards of 55m, over several progressive ledges of rocks, till it was precipitated into a dark abyss, where it formed a whirlpool of frightful appearance and immense depth.

According to Weston St John Joyce, writing in 1912 in his book The Neighbourhood of Dublin, it was considered to be the most picturesque fall in the county of Wicklow. A handsome bridge, of a single Gothic arch, soared across the chasm through which the water rushed. The span of this arch was 20m, and its keystone was 55m above the level of the river below. Sharp and naked rocks overhang the glen for some distance, both above and below the fall.

Poulaphouca means, in the old tongue, the home or hole of the Pooka or Púca. It is generally considered that on All Hallows’ Eve, the dark and sullen Pooka is particularly mischievous. Many mortals are abducted to fairyland on this night against their will, with the connivance of the Pooka. Those persons taken away are sometimes seen once more at Hallowe’en by their living friends.

Children were told that the Pooka went about on this night spitting or urinating on all wild fruits, which were not to be eaten thenceforth. Indeed, the Pooka may do so, he may do many things on that night; but it is a practical way for parents to prevent children from eating damaged and decayed fruits, for there is always a wisdom to be found somewhere in folk tales passed through generations.

The Pooka is not much seen in that area nowadays. Perhaps he was chased out when the reservoir was formed in the 1930s or perhaps he hopped away in the previous century when a 7km extension to the Dublin and Blessington steam tramway was built by the Blessington and Poulaphouca Steam Tramway, with its end-of-line terminus at Poulaphouca. It opened for business on 1 May 1895, with great hope and determination. However, the line closed down again in 1932, not long before the great flooding came to this part of Wicklow.

The locality was more memorable for a long time in the world of hunting as being the scene of the destruction of the Kildare hounds in 1813. A description of what happened appeared a good many

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