The Dargle

We don't know how long people have been living along the River Dargle. Teacher has told us that stone age flints were found on the banks some years ago and fulacht fiaigh ,Mesolithic cooking pits,were also dug near the

My Poem Streams flowing down the hills, Tributaries come , the river fills. The mouth of the river opens wide, And the sea , takes it with pride. By Niall Qiunn.

river. The Vikings lived in our area and they used the river as a boundary between their land and that of the local Irish chief In 1173, the Earl of Pembroke gave the land of Bray to one of his knights, Walter de Riddlesfort and he built a big castle beside where the bridge is today. The castle is not there now. He built a mill mill race on the river and some time later, the King gave permission for a tannery to be built beside the river.

After the Battle of the Boyne, James the Second was supposed to have camped beside the river as he fled ahead of his army. Oliver Cromwell camped near the river after the Siege of Drogheda. One of the local O'Toole tribe stole his white horse so Cromwell sent some of his cannon guns up to their castle and blasted it.

OUR FIELD TRIP ALONG THE DARGLE

STOP 1 STEPS UP FROM THE RIVER If you go down Ravenswell road past the gates of the golfclub you will see granite steps coming up the river wall. These were used long ago by fishermen and other boatmen who had collected cargo from big ships at the mouth of the river. There was no harbour there then.	STOP 2 HORSE BRIDGE This was the place used by boatmen when they had big cargo.Horses would back their carts down to the river side.
STOP 3 POWERSCOURT WATERFALL When we went to the waterfall the gates were locked because a man had fallen down the fall and he was seriously injured.The waterfall is 400 feet high.	STOP 4 KIPPURE GATES Streams from Kippure Mountain make the Dargle river deeper.There is an RTE Television mast on the top of the mountain.
STOP 5 THE HEAD OF THE DARGLE BRIDGE The River Dargle starts as a little stream in the bog one mile from this bridge. It is about three ft. wide here.	STOP 6 TURF/BOG CUTTING The bog has grown like a blanket for thousands of years. People cut the turf to make fires.
STOP 7 LOCH BRAY A huge glacier filled this lake during the last Ice Age, 20,000 years ago.	STOP 8 A MORAINE When the glacier started to melt, sand fell off it and blocked the water from flowing out of the lake.