Walk 9: Three Rock Hill, Dublin

For my ninth of nine walks in the Dublin Area, I am pointing the reader to Three Rock Hill.

Every day on the way to Johnny's school you could look up to the west(ish) and see a low round mountain (everyday there wasn't rain or fog that is). At one point Dervla drove by on her bike on her way to work and asked if we'd ever want to climb that mountain we see every day!

Three Rock Mountain (Binn Trí Charraig) is a mountain e outside of Dublin's southern suburbs. It is 1,457 feet high and forms part of the hills in the Dublin Mountains. The mountain takes its name from the three groups of granite ricks at the summit. 

It was once thought that these features were manmade:
 

Gabriel Beranger wrote of them in 1780, “I take them to be altars upon which sacrifices were offered […] the regularity which is observed in piling them convinces me they are the work of man, as they could not grow in that position”.*

 

Actually fact, the three outcrops are called "tors" and are natural geological features produced by the gradual process of weathering. 

 The writer Weston St. John Joyce described the vista thus: “The view from this commanding height, 1,479 feet over sea-level, extends over a vast tract of mountain, sea, and plain, comprising, to the north, the blue waters of Dublin Bay, with Clontarf and Howth, the Naul or Man-of-War hills, and the Mourne Mountains; eastward, Kingstown, Dalkey, and Killiney, and then in succession the fertile vale of Shanganagh, Carrickgollogan, the Scalp, Bray Head, the Sugar Loaves, and the slopes of Prince William's Seat. In clear weather Holyhead and the Welsh mountains may frequently be discerned, Snowdon and the Llanberis Pass being usually the most conspicuous, but occasionally the elongated outline of Cader Idris may be observed some distance to the right”.

We ran out of time to climb Three Rock, which is shocking because there is supposed to be a tomb up there and I would go out of my way for a tomb any time! But here are the strange and nearly unidentifiable directions I received from Dervla on how to get there!

The three rock trek and tomb.

1.       Park at the three rock upper car park. At the upper car park it is a short walk to the forest barrier and a number of map boards and information panels.

2.       Continue along for a few metres and you are at a junction – the tarmac road runs to your right towards the summit and another track to your left heads downhill . Take the middle dirt track which soon leaves the trees onto a clear felled area (careful here – this track is criss-crossed by MTB trails).

3.       You soon come to a line of trees and are out onto open heath and gorse on the east side of the mountain – great views out over the sea. Follow the obvious grassy trail south.

4.       After a few minutes you arrive at an old disused granite quarry, now taken over by a small copse of aerials and mobile phone towers, kind of a miniature version of the array of masts on the summit. Up until a few years ago you could still see the metal rails that the stone masons used to transport the cut rock down to Barnacullia below.

5.       Continue along the trail – you are now back in the tree line again – with the forest to your right. Cross over (or under) a forest barrier. Note the small deep reservoir on your right a little further on – this is also known as the “newt pond” although I’ve never seen any.

6.       Follow this track as it plunges into heavy dense pine woods – at the next junction follow the track to the right.

7.       A short distance on the track undergoes a U-bend – but there should be a basic trail straight on – this connects with another  track – turn right onto this track.

8.       About 500m up it connects with a forest road, turn left onto this road and follow it roughly south. This is also the route of the dublin mountain way so you should be able to follow the walking man signs.

9.       Near the end (about 500m from the Glencullen road) you should be able to see the tomb, or signs for it to your left.  The tomb is roofless and mainly a mass of stones, but the outline of the grave and passage can be made out.

*In commenting on the view from the summit he also said that “The extensive summit of this mountain, the parched ground and its solitude, make it the most awful spot I had ever seen”.