Kippure (; ) at , is the 56th-highest peak in

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 ...

on the

Arderin Arderin () is a mountain on the border between counties Laois and Offaly in Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is ...

scale, and the 72nd-highest peak on the Vandeleur-Lynam scale.Mountainviews, (September 2013), "A Guide to Ireland's Mountain Summits: The Vandeleur-Lynams & the Arderins", Collins Books, Cork, Kippure is situated in the far northern sector of the

Wicklow 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 ...

, where it lies on the border of counties

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 ...

and

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; ) is the county town of County Wicklow in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located on the east of Ireland, south of Dublin. According to the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had ...

in Ireland. Kippure is the

County Top The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...

for Dublin, and its height and positioning over Dublin city have made its summit an important site for transmission masts, which are highly visible from a distance. Kippure's slopes feed into the Liffey Head Bog which forms the source of the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...

. The summit can be easily accessed from the east via a path that lies off the R115 (also called the "Military Road") road along the route to the Sally Gap.

Naming

According to Irish academic Paul Tempan, "Kippure" is simply a "

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

of a pronunciation collected locally, but without any clear meaning". Tempan notes that it resembles the Irish language term "ciop" (meaning stump) and "iúr" (meaning yew), however "stump of the yew" would be "Ciop Iúir". While it is unlikely that yew trees could have ever grown on an exposed mountain such as Kippure, Tempan notes that there is a connection with a similar name in the lower valley, where the association with yew trees could have come.

Geography

Kippure's large

massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...

sits at the head of two major valleys: the valley of

Glencree Glencree ( from the older Gleann Criothach, which translates as Valley of the Shaking Bog) is a valley in the Wicklow Mountains in eastern Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is the third-closest valley in the mountains to Dublin city, the first be ...

(part of County Wicklow) to the east, which it forms with Tonduff , Maulin , and Prince William's Seat ; and the valley of Glenasmole (part of Dublin) to the north, which is forms with Seefingan , and Corrig Mountain . To the south of Kippure is the high mountain pass of the Sally Gap at , and the long winding "central spine" of the Wicklow Mountains as the range runs to Mullaghcleevaun , and then on to Tonelagee , and finally to the terminus at

Lugnaquilla LugnaquillaLugnaquilla
.

Kippure has two corrie lakes on its north-east flank, Lough Bray Upper and Lough Bray Lower. The slopes of Kippure hold the sources of several rivers, including tributaries that feed the

from the Liffey Head Bog on the western slopes of Tonduff, and tributaries that feed 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 ...

. Kippure's

prominence In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...

of qualifies it as a Marilyn, and it also ranks it as the 32nd-highest mountain in Ireland on the

MountainViews Online Database In these lists of mountains in Ireland, those within Northern Ireland, or on the Republic of Ireland – United Kingdom border, are marked with an asterisk, while the rest are within the Republic of Ireland. Where mountains are ranked by height ...

, '' 100 Highest Irish Mountains'', where the minimum prominence threshold is . On very clear days, Kippure can be seen from

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

Transmission site

At the summit of Kippure stands a 127m (417') television and radio transmitter mast. This is the oldest television transmission site in

and was initially selected as a potential VHF FM radio transmitter site during the course of a Radio Éireann survey in the mid-1950s. The Irish Board of Works built an access road to the site in 1959, and the transmitter installation work was then started by the British company Pye Ltd. By the summer of 1961 the mast was erected and test transmissions followed, consisting of slide views of Ireland, a test-card, and the music of Count John McCormack. Telefís Éireann began with transmission from Kippure on 31 December 1961 using the British 405-line TV standard on VHF

Band III Band III is the name of the range of radio frequencies within the very high frequency (VHF) part of the electromagnetic spectrum from 174 to 240 megahertz (MHz). It is primarily used for radio and television broadcasting. It is also called h ...

channel 7, to be followed by a 625-line service on channel H in the summer of 1962. Kippure was the first of the original five main Telefís Éireann transmitters to come into service, the others being,

Truskmore Truskmore () is a mountain with a height of on the border of County Sligo and County Leitrim in Ireland. It is the highest summit in the Dartry Mountains and the highest in Sligo. It is in the middle of a plateau whose edges are marked by high ...

(1962), Mount Leinster (1963),

Maghera Maghera ( ; ) is a small town at the foot of the Glenshane Pass in Northern Ireland. Its population was 4,235 in the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. Formerly in the Barony (Ireland), barony of Loughinsholin within the historic County ...

(1963), and Mullaghanish (1963). RTE Kippure Transmitting Station Entrance Gate - geograph

VHF FM transmission of

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

Radio (the former Radio Éireann) commenced in 1966, with stereo broadcasting beginning in 1969. 405-line transmission from Kippure ceased in 1978 with the arrival of

RTÉ 2 (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

, however, Kippure did not transmit RTÉ 2 until much later. Initially on Channel J at low power later moving to Channel H with RTÉ 1 moving to Channel E. Kippure's importance in radio and television transmission has diminished since the late 1970s with the opening of three new

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

transmitter sites at Three Rock in County Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Clermont Carn in

County Louth County Louth ( ; ) is a coastal Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of County Meath, Meath to the ...

, and Cairn Hill in

County Longford County Longford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford. Longford County Council is the Local government in the Republic ...

, which provide better reception in most areas previously served only by Kippure. Today the Irish DTT service,

Saorview Saorview ( ) is the national digital terrestrial television (DTT) service in Ireland. It is owned by RTÉ and operated by 2RN. The service began operation on 29 October 2010 on a trial basis with a full launch on 26 May 2011. By legislation i ...

, the national FM radio stations, and some commercial radio stations are broadcast from the site.

Current transmissions

Digital television

FM radio

Kippure relay transmitters

Bibliography

* * * *

Gallery

File:Upper and Lower Lough Bray.jpg, Lough Bray Lower and Upper File:IMG Kippure0232w.jpg, From the Sally Gap File:The Young Liffey - geograph.org.uk - 464192.jpg,

tributary File:View east rom Kippure.jpg, View east from the summit File:War Hill - geograph.org.uk - 523813.jpg, Killpure and War Hill from Djouce

References

External links

MountainViews: The Irish Mountain Website
Kippure

the largest database of British Isles mountains ("

DoBIH The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...

")
Hill Bagging UK & Ireland
the searchable interface for the

{{IrishTrails Marilyns of Ireland Mountains and hills of County Wicklow Hewitts of Ireland Mountains under 1000 metres Mountains and hills of South Dublin (county) Highest points of Irish counties Transmitter sites in Ireland