Tibradden Mountain ()
is a mountain in
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 ...
in the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...
. Other former names for the mountain include "Garrycastle" and "Kilmainham Begg" (a reference to
Kilmainham
Kilmainham (, meaning " St Maighneann's church") is a south inner suburb of Dublin, Ireland, south of the River Liffey and west of the city centre. It is in the city's Dublin 8 postal district.
History
Origins
Kilmainham's foundation dates ...
Priory which once owned the lands around the mountain).
It is high
and is the 561st-highest mountain in Ireland.
It forms part of the group of hills in the Dublin Mountains which comprises
Two Rock
Two Rock (; archaic: Black Mountain; ' ()) is a mountain in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. It is high and is the 382nd highest mountain in Ireland. It is the highest point of the group of hills in the Dublin Mountains which comprises Tw ...
,
Three Rock
Three Rock Mountain (; archaism, archaic: ''Sliabh Ruadh'') is a mountain in County Dublin, Ireland. It is high and forms part of the group of hills in the Dublin Mountains which comprises Two Rock, Three Rock, Kilmashogue and Tibradden Mou ...
,
Kilmashogue
Kilmashogue or Kilmashoge () is a mountain in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county in Ireland. It is high and forms part of the group of hills in the Dublin Mountains which comprises Two Rock, Three Rock, Kilmashogue and Tibradden Mountains. The f ...
and Tibradden Mountains. The views from the summit encompass Dublin to the north, Two Rock to the east and 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 ...
to the south and west.
[Fourwinds, p. 154.]
The geological composition is mainly
granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
and the southern slopes are strewn with granite boulders.
The summit area is a habitat for
heather,
furze
''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are na ...
,
gorse
''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are na ...
and
bilberry
Bilberries () are Eurasian low-growing shrubs in the genus ''Vaccinium'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae that bear edible, dark blue berries. They resemble but are distinct from North American blueberries.
The species most often referre ...
as well as
Sika deer
The sika deer (''Cervus nippon''), also known as the northern spotted deer or the Japanese deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to other parts of the world. Previously found from northern Vietnam in the south t ...
, foxes and
badger
Badgers are medium-sized short-legged omnivores in the superfamily Musteloidea. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity rather than by the ...
s.
The forestry plantation on the slopes – known as the Pine Forest – contains
Scots pine
''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US), Baltic pine, or European red pine is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-gr ...
,
Japanese larch
''Larix kaempferi'', the Japanese larch or karamatsu ( or ) in Japanese, is a species of larch native to Japan, in the mountains of Chūbu and Kantō regions in central Honshū.Farjon, A. (1990). ''Pinaceae. Drawings and Descriptions of the G ...
,
European larch
''Larix decidua'', the European larch, is a species of larch native to the mountains of central Europe, in the Alps and Carpathian Mountains, with small disjunct lowland populations in northern Poland. Its life span has been confirmed to be clos ...
,
Sitka spruce
''Picea sitchensis'', the Sitka spruce, is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree growing to just over tall, with a trunk diameter at breast height that can exceed 5 m (16 ft). It is by far the largest species of spruce and the fifth- ...
,
oak
An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
and
beech
Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...
.
The mountain is also a site of archaeological interest with a prehistoric burial site close to the summit.
History
Prehistoric monuments
Close to the summit is a prehistoric burial site. Local tradition associates it, incorrectly, with
Niall Glúndub
(Modern Irish: , 'Niall Black-Knee, son of Áed'; died 14 September 919) was a 10th-century Irish king of the and High King of Ireland. Many Irish kin groups were members of the and traced their descent from Niall of the Nine Hostages (Niall N ...
. It was excavated in 1849 by members of the
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...
who found a stone-lined
cist
In archeology, a cist (; also kist ;
ultimately from ; cognate to ) or cist grave is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. In some ways, it is similar to the deeper shaft tomb. Examples occur ac ...
containing a pottery vessel and cremated remains, now preserved by the
National Museum of Ireland
The National Museum of Ireland () is Ireland's leading museum institution, with a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art, culture, and natural history. It has three branches in Dublin, the arch ...
in Dublin.
[Healy, p. 91.] In its present form, the site consists of an open circular chamber
in diameter with a narrow passage.
[Healy, p. 92.] For many years, it was believed that this monument was a
passage grave
A passage grave or passage tomb consists of one or more burial chambers covered in earth or stone and having a narrow access passage made of large stones. These structures usually date from the Neolithic Age and are found largely in Western Europ ...
and the author
Robert Graves
Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...
refers to it as such in his poetic mythological work ''
The White Goddess
''The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth'' is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by the English writer Robert Graves. First published in 1948, it is based on earlier articles published in ''Wales'' magazine ...
'' (1948).
[Fourwinds, p. 153.] However, conservation work done at the site in 1956 revealed that the chamber and passage were not original features but had probably been created at the time of the original excavation in the nineteenth century. A stone bench was also found in the centre, apparently built for the convenience of visitors to the site.
It is now accepted that the monument is in fact a
chambered cairn
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable (usually stone) chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are fo ...
with a cist burial at the centre.
The site may be the burial place of Bródáin, after whom the mountain is named.
The monument is not at the summit of the mountain but is located slightly to the north at a position where the view across
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 ...
to
Howth
Howth ( ; ; ) is a peninsular village and outer suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The district as a whole occupies the greater part of the peninsula of Howth Head, which forms the northern boundary of Dublin Bay, and includes the ...
is not obscured by Two Rock.
Within the chamber itself lies a stone with a spiral pattern. It became a national monument in 1940.
Other sites of historical interest
The antiquarian Weston St. John Joyce described a rude carving of a cross and a crowned figure with upraised arms on one of the rocks to the south of the summit.
[Joyce, p. 134-135.] This feature was also documented and photographed by the archaeologist Patrick Healy.
[Healy, ''Rathfarnham Roads'', p. 92-93.] Although the cross is in an early Christian style, Joyce and Healy both surmised it and the figure to have been carved at some time in the nineteenth century.
Both carvings are still somewhat visible (the figure less so than the cross) but require direct light on the rock.
On the southern slopes, along the
R116 road
The R116 road is a regional road in Ireland which runs east–west from the N11 at Loughlinstown to the R115 in Ballyboden. It runs through the South of County Dublin for its entire length.
Route
The official definition of the R116 from t ...
is a stone with the inscription, "O'Connell's Rock, 23 July 1823".
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel(I) O’Connell (; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilisation of Catholic Irelan ...
gave an address to the local populace from this rock as they celebrated
Garland Sunday
Reek Sunday (), Garland Sunday or Crom Dubh Sunday (Irish: ''Domhnach Crom Dubh'') is an annual day of pilgrimage in Ireland.
On the last Sunday in July, thousands of pilgrims climb Ireland's holiest mountain, Croagh Patrick (764 metres) in C ...
that year.
Access and recreation
Access to the mountain is possible via the Pine Forest, a
Coillte
Coillte (; ; meaning /) is a state-owned commercial forestry business in Ireland based in Newtownmountkennedy. Coillte manage approximately 7% of the country’s land, and operates three businesses - their core forestry business, a 'land solut ...
-owned forest recreation area on the slopes of the mountain which is managed by the Dublin Mountains Partnership.
Tibradden is also traversed by the
Dublin Mountains Way
The Dublin Mountains Way () is a waymarking, waymarked long-distance trail in the Dublin Mountains, Counties South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. The route is approximately long and runs from Shankill, Dublin, Shankill in the e ...
hiking trail that runs between
Shankill and
Tallaght
Tallaght ( ; , ) is a southwestern outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The central village area was the site of a monastic settlement from at least the 8th century, which became one of medieval Ireland's more important monastic centres.
Up to th ...
while the
Wicklow Way
The Wicklow Way () is a long-distance trail that crosses the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland. It runs from Marlay Park in the southern suburbs of Dublin through County Wicklow and ends in the village of Clonegal in County Carlow. It is designate ...
hiking trail runs to the southeast of the summit.
The first part of the Dublin Mountains Way to be completed was the section linking Tibradden, Kilmashogue and Cruagh forests and a dedication plaque marking its opening on 19 June 2009 by
Éamon Ó Cuív
Éamon Ó Cuív (; born 23 June 1950) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Galway West constituency from 1992 to 2024. He previously served as deputy leader of Fianna Fáil from 2011 to 2012, a ...
,
TD,
Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs
The Minister for Children, Disability and Equality () is a senior minister in the government of Ireland and leads the Department of Children, Disability and Equality.
The Minister for Children, Disability and Equality is Norma Foley, TD.
She ...
can be found along the route of the Way in the Pine Forest.
There is another dedication plaque in the Pine Forest, near the car park, marking the inauguration of the Dublin Mountains Partnership on 24 October 2008 by
Eamon Ryan
Eamon Michael Ryan (born 28 July 1963) is an Irish former Green Party politician who served as Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Minister for Transport from June 2020 to January 2025, and was Leader of the Green Par ...
, TD,
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
The Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment () is a senior minister in the Government of Ireland and leads the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.
The Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment is Darragh O'Brie ...
.
See also
*
List of mountains in Ireland
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*
Dublin-Wicklow Mountains
References
Notes
Bibliography
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External links
Tibradden Mountaina
Dublin Mountains PartnershipTibradden Mountaina
Mountain Views
{{Mountains and hills of Leinster
Mountains and hills of South Dublin (county)
Archaeological sites in County Dublin