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A Walk Along the Wall
“If time is unhappily your master,” my holiday guide reads, “entrain by
the Great Northern from Belfast to Lisburn then down the Upper Bann Valley.
There you will find the Kingdom of Mourne, a unique playground for the painter,
pedestrian, mountaineer, motorist, angler, and golfer alike.”The guide-book
was Magic Miles in Ireland (published in Dublin in 1934) but so little has
changed in this corner of the country that it seemed silly to go and splash
out on a glitzy new travel book. Right enough the railway has gone, but
everything else seems pretty much the same as covered in this excellent
guide.
Well, the prices have gone up a bit. Back in 1934 to stay in the Slieve
Donard Hotel (4 star, and still the top-drawer digs in the North) would
cost you 12/6 per night — about 62p if my sums are right.
But one thing that certainly hasn’t changed is the Mourne Wall, a dry-stone
granite wall that stretches 22 miles from peak to peak, enclosing the reservoirs
of the Silent Valley and Ben Crom. Standing five feet high along most of
its length it was constructed from 1904 to 1922.
Now this may not quite be the Great Wall of China — but it’s extremely
impressive nonetheless, stretching as it does to the top of the highest
mountain in the North, Slieve Donard, passing the Castles of Commedagh —
a mighty battlement of towers and turrets of solid granite — and then onto
Slieve Coragh, Slievenaglogh, Slieve Meelmore and onwards into the mist...
Not a pick of cement was used in the construction of the wall, which
to the men who built it became “the black ditch of Mourne”.
Co. Down and its people lived through hard times in the early 20th century,
and thousands of local men earned a subsistence living heaving great boulders
of granite across the mountainside. In the process they created a monumental
structure quite unlike anything else in Ireland.
I tell you, if this astonishing engineering feat was anywhere else on
the island, Americans would be told it was built by the Little People to
keep the banshees out, and the tourists would flock in their thousands.
But because it’s in an area that until fairly recently was more connected
with The Bother in the public mind, the area is as unspoilt as it was in
the pre-Cambrian era, and on a good day you’ll be lucky to pass another
half dozen people.
But you’ll probably be wondering, given that the wall probably wasn’t
built by the little folks, exactly why it was put up. There certainly seems
to be something of the pointlessness of Gulliver’s Travels about it all.
I mean, just as Swift had an island where the entire economy was based on
everyone being paid to do everybody else’s laundry, why would anyone build
a wall across a substantial range of mountains?
The clue lies in the afore-mentioned reservoirs. As long ago as 1678
the Belfast Water Commissioners were looking for a plentiful supply of clean
water for their town, and the Mournes were pin-pointed as the best source.
Nine thousand acres of the High Mournes were purchased, and by 1893 work
had begun (things don’t happen quickly in this corner of the world — two
centuries is the mere blink of an eye in these parts).
The reservoir was duly completed, but in the days before sophisticated
purification processes, humans, sheep, foxes etc. had to be stopped entering
the catchment area. The Mourne Wall was the result, and it remains a triumph
of craftsmanship. Most of the wall is as solid as the day it was built —
despite the only mortar used in the entire length being in the three watchtowers
on Slieve Meelmore, Slieve Commedagh and Slieve Donard.
The strength of the wall lies in its cunning construction. Enormous “footing
stones” were used as a base, and two dry stone walls were built atop of
this, leaning against each other. Broad “cam” stones were then laid along
the top of the wall projecting outwards — binding the two walls together,
while also making it difficult for animals, human or otherwise, to cross
over.
Only stones that were near to hand were used — which is why the path
beside the wall is relatively easy to walk along, being mostly free of stones
to trip over. It’s also simple to cross over the wall these days as wooden
styles are provided at strategic points.
This tremendous circuit of the main Mourne peaks was built by people
who were poor and hungry. And yet paradoxically it was the work of these
craftsmen and labourers that did more to open up the Mountains of Mourne
to hill-walkers and casual tourists than anything else. So as you stroll
along this veritable wonder of Ireland, spare a thought for its creators’
efforts, to which every yard of the wall bears witness.
Just down the road
The Brandy Pad, an old smugglers’ path which traverses the mountains
and the Mourne Wall, starts at the Bloody Bridge (don’t ask) overlooking
the Irish Sea.
The pad wends upwards into the mountains and eventually leads to Poulaphouca
— the Glen of the Fairies — and on to the Hare’s Gap and along the slopes
of Slievenaglogh.
If you walk far enough along this path, and cross the Trassey River,
you’ll eventually come to Hilltown, a place that seems to have far more
than its fair share of pubs. Can anybody down the back guess why?
Correct — this is where, according to legend, the smugglers, fresh off
the Brandy Pad, repaired in order to celebrate a good night’s work. Having
safely stowed their liquor, tobacco, tea, silk and soap (often brought from
the Isle of Man or sometimes Britain) the hardy smugglers would make their
way down to Dooley’s or the like and sink a feed of gargle, as they say
in these parts.
This is still a convivial place to replenish yourself after a hard day
in the mountains.
Main center
The Mountains of Mourne actually sweep down to the sea at Newcastle,
where the building of the Mourne Wall was co-ordinated.
The name Newcastle is, curiously enough, the commonest name for a town
in Ireland — there are five in all, including Newcastle West.
But the view along the Main Street of Co. Down’s Newcastle is not unique
in just Ireland — it must be one of the truly great urban views in the world,
with the huge crag of Slieve Donard almost rising directly out of Dundrum
Bay and dominating the town. It’s a view that must support an entire postcard
industry.
You just won’t be able to resist humming to yourself the famous lines,
“When we get all we want we’re as quiet as can be, where the Mountains of
Mourne sweep down to the sea.”
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