the military road

The Wicklow Mountains were for centuries the strongholds of the unsubdued O'Tooles and O'Brynes, and even down until 1803 a leader of the 1798 Rising, Michael Dwyer, was able to remain at large among them. it was to make theses mountain strongholds accessible to the mountain strongholds accessible to the British Army that the Military road was built after 1798. It runs from Rathfarnham , just south of Dublin, to Aghavannagh, and today it open up the beauties of the central Wicklow area to the visitor. Relics of the road's original purpose are the block- houses that can be seen at several points along the route. From Rathfarnham the road rises steeply, with fine views back over the city of Dublin , until it levels out to pass across the boggy plateau of the Featherbed. As it approaches Kippure Mountain ( 2, 475 feet) , the road looks down on two mountain tarns. Upper Lough Bray and Lower Lough Bray. A little beyond is the source of the River Liffey, which meanders down the mountain slopes into county Kildare and then flows northwards to enter County Dublin near the County Kildare village of Leixlip.