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Co. Wicklow, more than most Irish counties, owes its topography to the Ice Age. The last major Irish glacial period extended from about 70,000 years before the present to about 10,000 years ago. During this period of time the ice cap reached a thickness of over 1,000 meters. The gradual receding of the ice cap created the geography of the present day Wicklow comprising glacial valleys, mountain lakes, conies such as Glenmalure, Glenmacnass and cirques. The melting ice in the valleys deposited great heaps of rocks and debris blocking the escape of the corrie lakes. After the ice age ended and the temperature started to rise, Ireland changed from a type to forest and vegetation. By 6,000 years ago Wicklow was heavily forested with hazel, oak, elm etc. Over 9,000 years ago the first people started to arrive in Ireland. These were hunter-gatherers who lived off the wild animals and fruit. Gradually over the next 3,000 years or so, later arrivals made some small developments in agriculture. The Bronze Age period of approximate4 in the wotrking of in Wicklow. Evidence of activity in this period can be seen today in standing stones stone circle, wedge tombs By the late bronze Iron Age period there were early signs of more localised settlement. These are indicated by Fulacht Fiadh and ringforts. Christianity came to Ireland in the 5th century and it said that Palladius, the bishop sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine in 431, landed at Arklow. Soon afterwards St. Patrick returned to Ireland to start his Irish mission. One of the greatest of all Irish monastic sites is that associated with St. Kevin at Glendalough. This was a site of importance from the 6th — 1 1th century. Many of the details that have come down to us are more legend than fact. We are told that he lived as a hermit in a small cell near the upper lake now known as St. Kevin’s Bed. He later became Abbot of Glendalough and he built the first church there. There are ruins of seven churches at Glendalough. The Drummond Missal is thought to have been written in Glendalough. - a book of various genealogies and an early Irish psalter. Vikings. The next crucial stage in Irish and Wicklow history was the Anglo Norman Invasion in 1169. Dermot MacMurrough, the King of Leinster, in order to resolve his dispute over the Irish kingship, sought the help of Henry II, the Anglo-Norman King of England. Pope Adrian 1V (an Englishman, Nicholas Breakspear) gave the King his approval to take whatever action he thought necessary. The area of the east coast of Ireland from south Dublin to Wicklow was known as the territory of Ui Briuin Cualann and passed on the death of MacMurrough in 1171 to the Norman Richard de Clare, better known as Strongbow. The lands at Bray were granted to Walter de Riddlesford. The Normans were responsible for the construction of one of the most defensive structures at Newcastle McKyneyon. The Shiring of Co. Wicklow. It was now possible to bring the O’Byrne country under the control of Dublin Castle and the county was finally shired in 1606. Wicklow was the last county to be shired. In 1603 Sir Richard Wingfield was granted the Manor
of Powerscourt. His kinsman In 1618, Sir. William Brabazon (later to become the
first Earl of Meath), was granted the castle and lands of Kilruddeiy by
King James I. The Earl of Stratford, Thomas Wentworth, who was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632, had acquired approximately 60,000 acres in Co. Wicklow. Much of this land was in half barony of Shillelagh, which had been granted to Sir John Harrington in 1578. These great woodlands provided sources of fuel in smelting iron ore, which was imported from Wales as pigiron. After the execution of Black Tom Wentworth at
Tyburn, London in 1641, an ongoing Others of the large estates in Co. Wickiw were
those of Howard Family, Earls of |
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