Red Gap, also known as Saggart Hill or Slieve Thoul, is a hill 397
metres above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...
situated 16 kilometres southwest of
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
city centre in the
Dublin Mountains
The Wicklow Mountains (, archaic: '' Cualu'') form the largest continuous upland area in Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into the counties of Dublin, Wexford and Carlow. Where the mountai ...
close to
Saggart
Saggart () is a village in County Dublin, Ireland, south west of Dublin, Dublin city, in the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local government area of South Dublin. It lies between the N7 road (Ireland), N7 (Naas Road), Rathcoole, ...
and
Rathcoole. The hill gets its name from the townland of 'Redgap' which lies just to the north of it.
Today, Red Gap is home to farmland and telecommunication masts. The hill has FM radio transmitters for
Newstalk
Newstalk (formerly NewsTalk 106) is a national independent radio station in Ireland. It is operated by News 106 Limited, a subsidiary of Bauer Media Audio Ireland, and broadcasts under a sound broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Aut ...
,
Kfm,
LMFM
LMFM is an independent local radio station based in Drogheda, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In terms of listenership, It is the largest radio station in Ireland outside of Dublin and Cork (city), Cork broadcasting to a population in excess of 30 ...
,
iRadio
Contemporary hit radio stations in Ireland
Radio stations in the Republic of Ireland
2023 mergers and acquisitions ...
and
East Coast FM
East Coast FM (formerly known as BLB, Horizon FM, then East Coast Radio) is an Irish local radio station broadcasting from Bray, County Wicklow under a sound broadcasting contract from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland
The station operates ...
.
The hill is also home to low-power fill in transmitters of
Nova 100
Nova 100 (call sign: 3MEL) is a commercial radio station in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, broadcasting on 100.3 MHz.
The station is owned by NOVA Entertainment along with sister station, smoothfm 91.5.
History
Nova 100 commenced on th ...
and
4FM, designed to cover the Dublin commuter belt
The
old-time song "Campbell's farewell to Red Gap" is believed to be referring to this hill.
Archaeology
Rosaleen Dwyer, Heritage Officer of
South Dublin County Council
South Dublin County Council () is the local authority of the county of South Dublin, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities created by the Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993 to succeed the former Dublin County Council before its abolitio ...
, noted the presence of archaeological sites on the hill in a 2015 talk, explaining:
Another of the upland sites are over there towards Saggart Hill... Slieve Thoul wood and Lugg Wood, again you've got a concentration of prehistoric burial tombs including two passage tombs inside the hill itself, two further passage tombs on the lower slopes, a barrow (a ring barrow
A ring cairn (also correctly termed a ring bank enclosure, but sometimes wrongly described as a ring barrow) is a circular or slightly oval, ring-shaped, low (maximum 0.5 metres high) embankment, several metres wide and from 8 to 20 metres i ...
) in Lugg Woods itself, and three further barrows in an enclosure further south so that's a huge collection of archaeology that's just asking to be interpreted in the correct way with appropriate routes and trails..."
Radio transmissions
See also
*
List of mountains and hills of County Dublin
References
Mountains and hills of South Dublin (county)
{{Dublin-geo-stub