Over The Hill

It’s a walk that GG has done before, and just about each and every time we’re up on Killiney Hill, we get a little feckin’ lost.

Not that this is a particularly big walk – far from it, in fact.

The long and winding paths all lead up to The Obelisk perched on top of the 153 metres high hill, the 1.8 million steps just making it feel like much more of a climb. Especially for an old dog. Like GG.

Once you make it up through that M.C. Escher trek though, the views are wonderful, with a gobsmacking panorama from Dublin to Greystones, and all the other insignificant points in-between.

It’s possibly the lack of any signposting at crucial crossroads that can extend this, on a good day, hour-long walk, depending on your choice of three popular entries – the coastal side, along Vico Road, the Tower Tea Rooms on the opposite side, off Killiney Hill Road, and the large car park situated on the north-western side. The other two access points are purely pedestrian, one leading in from Torca Road, and a second on Vico Road, the latter with no parking, and a very real danger that as you enter all the long shadows and tall trees, Bono might pop out of his front gate to sing hello.

On this Bank Holiday Monday, the place was packed, with many taking the chance of parking on the double yellow stretches along Vico Road. Having White Rocks as an option too means this grand day out just needs the merest promise of sun to attract a crowd.

That twisty, turny climb up to that upstanding 1742 erection by John Mapas – indeed, the area used to be known as Mount Mapas, as well as Scalpwilliam – has the joy of quite a few smaller, off-the-beaten tracks branching off invitingly, each naturally leading to the peak. There’s also that Friday feeling of knowing every climb comes with an easy roll back home.

Okay, a little history…

The Killiney Obelisk is one of the most prominent and best loved follies in Ireland. Built in 1742 on the crown of Killiney Hill by John Mapas, it provides a prominent landmark from land and sea. It also marks one of the most striking panoramic views in Ireland, with Killiney Bay and the Wicklow Mountains to the south; Dalkey Hill and Island to the north; the Irish Sea to the east, and Dublin to the west.

Two smaller follies can be found on the site – the small cone known locally as the Witches Hat, and the step pyramid – which were built at a later date than the obelisk (probably during the mid-nineteenth century).

A carved Carrara marble plaque records the erection of the structure as a famine relief project, following a hard winter in 1741. The structure is built entirely of rubble granite, and consists of a slender, hollow cone, sitting on two diminishing, square-planned chambers.

The upper chamber served as a belvedere, with three windows, a fireplace and a doorway leading to an external viewing gallery. Originally the upper chamber was reached by an external staircase that appears in several historic prints. This was removed during a restoration of the structure in 1840 by Robert Warren (an event also commemorated on the building by a Carrara marble plaque) at which time a new internal staircase was constructed.

On the south facing ground floor niche, a third commemorative plaque in cast iron records the passing of Killiney Hill and surrounding lands into public ownership in 1891. A few years previously, the hill was named Victoria Hill, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, but, the name hasn’t really stuck. Except with Aileen Lennon.

A further restoration was carried out, most probably in the 1960s, when the lower door was bricked up and the structure covered with a hard cement render with quartz dry polishing chippings. In later years, this deteriorated significantly and large sheets of the render became loose and started to fall, causing a serious health and safety risk.

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council commissioned Howley Hayes Architects to draw up conservation proposals, which involved an initial high level inspection of the exterior and interior of the structure, carried out from steeple jack ladders.

The conservation works included the removal of all the cement render, repair of cracks and the recovering of the exterior with a lime and sand wet dash. Blocked openings were reinstated, and new doors and windows, in a mid-eighteenth-century style, were installed.

A new floor was constructed between the ground and the first floor chambers, and handrails installed to the internal staircase. The fireplace was also opened up in the upper chamber, and the entire interior limewashed.

The viewing gallery was weathered with asphalt, the parapet consolidated, and new granite copings and stainless steel railing installed to make it safe for public access.

Specialist repairs were carried out to the badly damaged marble plaques, and lightning protection installed. Finally, around the base of the building, inappropriate concrete paviours were removed and replaced with salvaged granite flagstones, and new timber seats were installed in three niches.

Nice. Suffice to say, this is a wonderful way to waste a day, and the fact that the Tower Tea Rooms are not only very reasonably priced and friendly, but also something of a dog park with coffee – and treats – well, what more could you want? And given that it’s right at the gate on Killiney Hill Road, and 5 minutes from The Obelisk, even the laziest of day trippers can get their kicks and cakes here.

Oh, and if anyone can figure out what the John Mapas quote on his fine Obelisk means – ‘Last year being hard with the poor the walls about these hills and this‘ – please write your explanation on the back of a €50 note and post it to GG at the usual address.

You can find out more about Killiney Hill here, about The Obelisk here, and go check out all the above pics in hi-res here, and our other Take A Hike recommendations here.