Turlough Hill hydro station

RosieJoe

ESB offers free tours of Turlough Hill hydro station on the 13h July to celebrate it's 40th anniversary.

See here for more details.

recedite

Engineering student Ger Murphy who has been taken on by the ESB as a summer tour guide says wind energy is now routinely used to pump the water back up to the upper lake overnight, completing a virtuous cycle – a sustainable loop utilising renewable wind and hydro power....



Station manager David Sexton says any comparable engineering job in these times –would take longer to build because of ecological concerns...

I doubt that Turlough Hill would get planning permission at all if it was being proposed now, due to environmental concerns/its a national park etc...
That is the irony of our most environmentally friendly piece of engineering infrastructure.
Similar concerns apply to new windfarms, they are often opposed by "environmentalists" who are quite happy to drive around in land rovers and import oil from Saudi to heat their houses.

The place is well worth a visit. Marvel at the foresight our politicians had back then, in the days when they could think beyond the next election, and marvel at the massive feat of engineering, and enjoy the fantastic views from the site.

comongethappy

It looks magnificent.

No wonder its unique here.
Even building a mere hospital is beyond the countries capability these days.

4/5 of these around the country would be magnificent.

Annasopra

The date is misleading.

http://www.esb.ie/main/education/Turlough-Hill-40-years.jsp

loobylou

It would be so much better if they broke up the horizontal "line" of the upper reservoir. Its visually intrusive from a large area of the Wicklow mountains. Would think a "fix" would be quite simple.

recedite

Its easily recognisable because of the flat top. I wouldn't call that "visually intrusive" though. A volcano would have the same kind of profile. The Sugar Loaf has an unusual shape too compared to the other hills.

RosieJoe

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

The date is misleading.

http://www.esb.ie/main/education/Turlough-Hill-40-years.jsp

Great to see that the weekday tours are free too, and bookable

Heisenberg1

I'm booked for the tour on Tuesday can anybody give me directions for driving from dun Laoghaire. Thanks

Alun

M11/N11 as far as Kilmacanoge, take the turnoff towards Glendalough. Drive through Laragh and just before you get to the Glendalough Visitor's Centre, take a right signposted Blessington and Wicklow Gap and it's on your left after 6 or 7 km.

Possum66

As Alun said, take the R755 from Kilmacanogue, then R756 from Laragh. Up-up-up amongst the hills, then you'll see flags on the right hand side. Drive in, enjoy. Big crowd today even at 10am, but tours were very well organized. If you have to park away from the entrance, they even ferry you in on golf buggies :-) Can't allowed to get down and see the turbines, but still worth the trip to see the cavern and the tunnel.

Alun

Through a friend whose wife works for ESB I once got to visit the upper reservoir itself when it was drained for innspection and maintenance and actually walk around inside it. That was weird I can tell you, it was like a giant banked motor racing circuit! Couldn't visit the turbine hall that time though either as they were doing maintenance in it then and it would have been too dangerous from a H&S perspective.

Possum66

Must have been fabulous! Great to have friends at the right places :-) Pity that the walk around the upper reservoir is not open for the public, I wonder why?