Glenasmole () is a valley 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 ...

in the south of

County Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. The valley itself is around in elevation and is surrounded by mountains exceeding in elevation.

Kippure Kippure (; ) at , is the 56th-highest peak in Ireland on the Lists of mountains in Ireland#Arderins, Arderin scale, and the 72nd-highest peak on the Lists of mountains in Ireland#Vandeleur-Lynams, Vandeleur-Lynam scale.Mountainviews, (September ...

, at , is the highest mountain along the valley ridge and is also the

highest point A list of highest points typically contains the name, elevation, and location of the highest point in each of a set of geographical regions. Such a list is important in the sport of highpointing. A partial list of highpoint lists is below: World ...

in County Dublin. The

River Dodder The River Dodder () is one of the three main rivers in Dublin, Ireland, the others being the River Liffey, Liffey, of which the Dodder is the largest tributary, and the River Tolka, Tolka. Course and system The Dodder rises on the northern s ...

rises at Kippure and flows through the valley, reaching the sea at

Dublin Bay Dublin Bay () is a C-shaped inlet of the Irish Sea on the east coast of Ireland. The bay is about 10 kilometres wide along its north–south base, and 7 km in length to its apex at the centre of the city of Dublin; stretching from Howth He ...

. The Glenasmole Valley is an EU-designated

Special Area of Conservation A special area of conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

. The Dodder feeds the two reservoirs at the centre of the valley, known as the Bohernabreena Reservoirs (). The reservoirs, constructed between 1883 and 1887, supply 18.2 million litres of water per day. Despite being within

South Dublin South Dublin () is a county in Ireland, within the province of Leinster and the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished for administrative purposes in 1994. South Dublin Cou ...

's local authority area, the reservoirs and accompanying waterworks are owned and operated by

Dublin City Council Dublin City Council () is the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authority of the city of Dublin in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the authority was k ...

The area around the valley is rural in nature and has a population of 415 according to the 2016 Census. There are no nucleated villages in the valley as most dwellings are one-off houses. The small area encompassing the valley covers , giving it a population density of 14.9 people per square km, making it the most sparsely populated region in County Dublin.

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 ...

, explained in a 2015 talk the significance of an archaeological site at Piperstown on the east slopes of the valley:

Another one of the upland sites is Piperstown (..) Really when you look at it, it's not the sort of thing that jumps out at you as being visible archaeology, y'know, if you walked over that ground without really paying much attention, you wouldn't be aware that you were walking over a very, very important archaeological site. It's a very significant archaeological complex dating to the late
Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
and features include seven
huts A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, clay, hid ...
and eight
burial cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...
s, but as I say, you need interpretation to understand what you're looking at.

References

{{reflist Landforms of County Dublin Valleys of Ireland