Welcome to
Snowdon View
Croghan Mountain

You are sitting beside Turbine 3, the 80m high wind turbine which provides renewable energy to 2,000 homes, looking out across Wexford and south Wicklow and over the Irish Sea. If you are lucky and it is a crisp, clear day you will see the Welsh Mountains clearly on the horizon, from Snowdon in the north to the Brecon Beacons in the south. If not there is much to see of the geography, geology and history of the south-east. Look to your right. You will see the TV transmitter at the top of Mount Leinster, then the slight dip to Sculloge Gap before rising again to the round granite mass of Blackstairs Mountains. The horizon is now blocked momentarily by the wooded slopes of nearby Annagh Hill and after that by the peak of Slieve Bhui (pronounced Slievewee) at Askamore, before Carrickbyrne Hill near New Ross comes into view.

Continue to the left and the low ridge of Forth Mountain runs to the outskirts of Wexford town. Get your first glimpse of the Wexford coast stretching down as far as Rosslare port.  The next prominent hill is Carrigrew near Ballycanew, after which the coastline turns inwards to form the bay at Courtown Harbour. After Courtown, the volcanic stump of Tara Hill stands out from the low lying Macamore coastal plain which runs all the way from Castletown to Kilmuckridge. At the end of the vista there is the remnant of Arklow Rock, much of which has been quarried to surface the autobahns of northern Germany. The old Viking town and port of Arklow can be seen just north of the Rock.

Immediately below you are the green fields and houses of Croghan valley and the White Heaps. In late June of 1798 this area would have been a scene of much activity as the army of the United Irishmen sought refuge in the mountains after their defeat at Vinegar Hill. Much of the history of this turbulent period is etched across the landscape, from the pivotal loss at the Battle of Arklow, insurgent camps at Carrigrew and Carrigbyrne, to the early victory at Three Rocks on Forth Mountain and the final desperate push through Sculloge Gap to Carlow, Kilkenny, Kildare and Meath.

Behind where you are located is Croghan Kinsella Mountain which is made up of 350-million-year-old granite.  This granite intrusion is believed to have been the source of gold bearing fluids which gave rise to the famous Croghan Gold Rush of 1795 but that’s a story for another day!!