River Dargle

River Dargle
An Deargail

River Dargle in Bray, County Wicklow
Main source Wicklow Mountains
River mouth Irish Sea at Bray Harbour
The Waterfall

The River Dargle (Irish: An Deargail, meaning "little red spot", so called with reference to the prevailing tint of its rocks) rises in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland on the northern slopes of Djouce Mountain and flows over the highest waterfall in Ireland, falling 121m (398 feet) at Powerscourt Waterfall. It then flows through the Glencree Valley where it is fed by the River Glencree before flowing east for a further 14 km (8.7 mi) to reach the Irish Sea at Bray Harbour.

Cultural references

Sir Walter Scott visited the area in 1825 and mistakenly assumed that Dargle was the name for any glen, etc. He used the word in his novel Redgauntlet seven years later: Glen, nor dargle, nor mountain, nor cave, could hide the puir hill-folk.[1]

About 1838 the eminent judge Philip Cecil Crampton, who lived at St. Valery House, by the Dargle, became a supporter of the temperance movement: to show his fidelity to the cause, he emptied the entire contents of his wine cellar into the river.[2]

The folk song Waxies' Dargle makes an indirect reference to the river. Non-religious holidays in Dublin - especially tradesmens' days off - were traditionally referred to as a "Dargle Days" (from the habit of the Irish upper classes, of travelling off to the banks of the Dargle, to picnic and engage in field sports such a tennis, on such days). The "Waxie's Dargle", on the other hand, is a humorous reference to the annual outing of the Dublin shoe-makers and repairers (who were known as "Waxies", from their habit of periodically running a ball of wax along the string as they stitched) to Irishtown on the River Dodder.[3][4]

See also

Rivers of Ireland

References

  1. ↑ Notes and Queries, January–June 1898
  2. ↑ Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 John Murray London 1926 Vol. 2 p.282
  3. ↑ Bernard Share: Slanguage, A Dictionary of Irish Slang. Dublin, Gill and McMillan (1997 and 2005) ISBN 0-7171-3959-X
  4. ↑ Quidnunc (9 October 1933). "An Irishman's Diary". The Irish Times. p. 4.

External links

Coordinates: 53°12′31″N 6°06′09″W / 53.2087°N 6.1025°W / 53.2087; -6.1025

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