Extract from Flaming Wheel

Flaming Wheel Title page

The book entitled Flaming Wheels is a collection of essays on the flora and fauna of Co. Wicklow written by an enthusiast who resided in Bray from the 1920's.The author was Sophia St. John Whitty who died in 1924, after which the essays she had published in the Irish Times, the Freemans Journal and the Irish Statesman were published under the title The Flaming Wheel.The book is divided according to the months of the year and under each month can be found a selection of essays relevant to that month, describing the activities of the animals and plants relating to a particular month.An example to illustrate this is found under the month of October-list of essays under October are as follows :The Fall of the Year, Autumnal Hedges, Birds in October, The Golden Woods, The River Pool. The subtitle of the book is Nature Studies in the Counties of Dublin and Wicklow.It is not scientific in its approach but is an enjoyable recounting of the sights observed by St. John Whitty on her nature excursions through the Counties of Wicklow and Dublin.

Flaming Wheel Title page

Flaming Wheel Title page

The book entitled Flaming Wheels is a collection of essays on the flora and fauna of Co. Wicklow written by an enthusiast who resided in Bray from the 1920's.The author was Sophia St. John Whitty who died in 1924, after which the essays she had published in the Irish Times, the Freemans Journal and the Irish Statesman were published under the title The Flaming Wheel.The book is divided according to the months of the year and under each month can be found a selection of essays relevant to that month, describing the activities of the animals and plants relating to a particular month.An example to illustrate this is found under the month of October-list of essays under October are as follows :The Fall of the Year, Autumnal Hedges, Birds in October, The Golden Woods, The River Pool. The subtitle of the book is Nature Studies in the Counties of Dublin and Wicklow.It is not scientific in its approach but is an enjoyable recounting of the sights observed by St. John Whitty on her nature excursions through the Counties of Wicklow and Dublin.

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In the Heart of the Granite Country

Short extract from The Flaming Wheel by Sophia St. John Whitty describing the topography and physical landscapes of the mountains. The descriptions include some sightings of a hawk...

In the Heart of the Granite Country

In the Heart of the Granite Country

Short extract from The Flaming Wheel by Sophia St. John Whitty describing the topography and physical landscapes of the mountains. The descriptions include some sightings of a hawk...

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The following is an extract taken from the essays in April entitled "IN THE HEART OF THE GRANITE COUNTRY". It describes the granite mountains of the county and also lists some of the flora and fauna common to that particular type of habitat. Some examples of plant life are the deer grass and the fraochans(Gaelic for bilberry, also known as fraughan).Mention is also made of the various birds to be seen:the kestrel, merlin and sparrow hawk.

"IN THE HEART OF THE GRANITE COUNTRY".

SOUTH of Dublin Bay by S.S.W. there extends a wide strip of high lying country-roughly from five to ten miles wide-which embraces the wildest and most mountainous scenery in Leinster. The great chain of the Wicklow Mountains runs, broadly speaking, from the Three Rock Mountain past Glendoo to the heights above Lough Bray. Then southwards again by Sally Gap, Wicklow Gap and Table Mountain, till it reaches its culminating height in the lofty head of Lugnaquilla, which rises over three thousand feet above sea level, and overlooks the chasm-like valley of the Glenmalure river.

From the Glencree Valley runs another range parallel to the first embracing Maulin, War Hill and Douce. Geologically speaking, the two are very different, for the Maulin-Douce range is composed of mica-schist, while the Glendoo-Lugnaquilla chain lies in the centre of the granite country. In the northern part of the latter district Kippure Mountain overtops all the other peaks, and rises nearly 2,500 feet, laving its feet in the two mountain lakes-Upper and Lower Lough Bray.

Kippure better repays the climber than many of the peaks in the more southerly part of the range which have the advantage of greater height, for, standing alone, it commands an immense tract of country. From the Eagle Rock, which overhangs lower Lough Bray, there is a sheer drop of one hundred feet to the lake below, and the sea-gulls, floating so placidly on its waters, look more like wind-blown feathers from their own breasts than birds. Behind the Eagle Rock, where, not so many years ago, the golden eagle reared her young, there lies a wild and desolate moorland which stretches away to the slopes of Kippure, as featureless a landscape as it is possible to imagine, clothed with short heather and rough deer-grass, shorn close by the unceasing wind. Here and there the shoulder of the hill-a witch in disguise, the people of the glens would tell you.

Considered geologically, these mountains are of immense antiquity, for they represent the earliest land surface known in Eastern Ireland. To the north and east are the great low-lying plains of Dublin and Kildare, which in ages long past were buried beneath a carboniferous sea which washed the feet of the mountain ranges. Many and marvellous are the changes which have taken place since those primeval days. Slow-moving glaciers have ground their way round the valleys, hollowing out lakes, and throwing up great banks to dam up their waters. In later days forests must have clothed the mountains before the deep beds of peat were laid down. The forests have gone, and in their turn the peat beds are disappearIng. Everywhere the domed tops of the mountains are cracking, and torrents traverse them, sweeping away immense sections and laying bare the granite skeleton beneath.