Website review: Irelandscape: Pictures of Ireland -...
jack-black discovered this in Ireland
•1 reviews since Apr 23, 2008
ireland
•irelandscape.com/image_details.php
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jack-black discovered 3 months ago- The Scalp
This place used to scare me and my brother as kids as we were driven below the overhanging rock and scree which always looked like it was about to start an an avalanche. I think perhaps it was the power of suggestion of its name more than anything which set our imaginations rolling. That these categories of the sublime and the beautiful were entirely romantic constructs is evidenced by this page from an old guidebook:
On the road from Enniskerry to Dublin, and within an easy drive of
Bray, is a wild ravine known as the Scalp. The road runs over a
shoulder of Shankhill Mountain and through this ravine; it presents a
very wild appearance, enormous masses of granite being heaped up in
grand and picturesque confusion on either side. It looks as if nature,
in order to spare man the trouble of blasting a road, had by some
mighty convulsion torn a rent through the mountain just wide enough
for a high road. Professor Hill has shown that the Scalp was once the
channel of a great river that drained districts of land, now denuded of
extensive rock deposits, and which discharged itself through the Irish
Sea in distant ages. From the south entrance a very fine view is
obtained, having in the foreground the Greater and the Lesser Sugar
Loaf Mountains.
The Scalp
Another pleasant trip is along the road which skirts the foot of the
Great Sugar Loaf Mountain, passing through the Glen of Downs, another
of these lovely Wicklow dells. It consists of a deep, well-wooded
ravine, the banks at some points rising to a height of 800 feet. The
road runs to Delgany, whence the return to Bray is direct.
Sugar-Loaf Mountain
But, as we have already suggested, he who would rightly appreciate
the scenery of this part of Ireland must go somewhat further afield. In
the central and southern part of Wicklow are to be found the finest
examples both of the softer and lovely country, and also of the
sterner, gloomy and wild mountain scenery. The centre towards which all
excursions in this region tend by a very natural attraction is the Vale
of Glendalough; and the reason for this is not far to seek. It is one
of the loveliest spots upon which the eye can rest. It is associated,
like so many other beautiful parts of Ireland, with the past history
and religious life of the nation; and the national tendency to
associate romance and tragedy with exceptional natural features is well
illustrated here.
"A scealp is a cleft or chasm; the word is much used among the English-speaking peasantry of the south, who call a piece of anything cut off by a knife or hatchet, a skelp."
The Origin and History of Irish Name of Places P.W. Joyce
- The Scalp
