Turlough Hill Transmission Lines

Twin 220 kV lines crossing the mountains from Turlough Hill hydro station. © Eugene Brennan

One of my cycles back in mid-August (the long days of summer seem to be a distant memory now) was from Kilcullen to within a few miles of Turlough Hill. This is the location of Ireland's only pumped storage power station. When there's a surplus of power which the grid can't use, pumps at the station send water to an artificial lake located on top of the mountain. Once there's a demand for power, the motors and pumps switch function and become turbines and generators, the turbines driven by water as it rushes down through penstocks (large pipes) to a natural lake, located at the base of the mountain. Turlough Hill power station is net inefficient (power out is less than power in due to losses in the system).

All Good

Created by Grok

 

Real Time Displays at Kilcullen Bus Stops

Image © Google Maps

I asked the NTA for information on whether real time passenger information displays could be installed at bus stops. This was the response:

Case #402630

Dear Eugene,

 

I refer to your recent correspondence regarding the provision of an RTPI (Real Time Passenger Information) unit at the following bus stop locations, images attached, which was forwarded to the National Transport Authority (NTA) to respond to you:

 

• stop number 136431, Kilcullen (Opposite Service Station), Castlemartin, Co. Kildare; and
• stop number 132641, Kilcullen (Outside Service Station), Castlemartin, Co. Kildare.

 

Chapel Lane, New Ross

Image © Google Maps

Unlike the UK, where medieval houses are plentiful, we have relatively few pre-18th century houses in Ireland. There are castles dating back to medieval times, but there are few, if any, "ordinary" houses from the medieval period, as we would think of a house today. However, fortified tower houses exist. One probable reason is that there was no substantial middle class who could afford "proper" houses, built from timber or brick and most people were poor and lived in mud cabins. Or maybe the climate was hostile to the half-timbered houses like those that still exist in the UK (if they even existed here), and they decayed over the centuries. Most of the houses in the country date no further back than the Georgian era, which extended from 1714 to 1837. There are some examples of Queen Anne style architecture, such as the Red House in Youghal, Marsh's Library in Dublin and The Rubrics in Trinity College. These were built in the 1710s and have a distinctive "doll's house" appearance. A few Tudor/Elizabethan-era buildings exist, such as Rothe House in Kilkenny; Ormond Castle, a manor house in Carrick-on-Suir; and Myrtle Grove, Sir Walter Raleigh's home in Youghal. It's possible also that some houses were later "Georgianified", their older fabric concealed beneath a more modern facade. That's the case with some of the so-called "Dutch Billys" in Dublin, a pre-Georgian architectural style brought by the Huguenots, Protestants who fled persecution in France around the end of the 17th century. So to cut a long story short, I came across this some time ago. I think it was Colm Moriarty, a Wexford-based archaeologist who mentioned the street in New Ross in a social media post. The facades at the front are plain-rendered, but the back of the terrace of houses reveal the medieval origin of at least one of the buildings.

 

Google Maps link to Chapel Lane in New Ross here 

Maps for Council Workers

Image © Google Maps

Apparently when we report road or other issues on the KCC portal and specify the location of the problem, repair crews just get a description, but not the map pinpointing where they have to fix them (there's an option to tag the position on a map when making a report on the portal). I had a long discussion with a repair crew a month or so ago and got a great insight into how they feel about this and other things. If someone reporting a problem doesn't clearly specify road numbers and distances from landmarks, obviously it can be difficult for a repair crew to find the problem. Saying that it's "just down the road from Johnny's house" or similar isn't very helpful. A point on a map would be more logical (assuming the person who made the report zoomed in sufficiently to accurately place a tag). Reading a map is hardly rocket science and I'm sure KCC can train workers to do so.

 

Maybe someone can let me know whether the tarmac is broken up and gone from around this drain opposite LaTouche Cottage in Brannockstown so I can report it? I make mental notes of these things when I'm out and about on the bike, but I've got a head like a sieve and forget where I've seen the defects. I don't want to make a false report. A cyclist could easily lose control if they hit this. It was ok last August when the Street View imagery was taken, but as far as I recall, the tarmac fill around the drain has now disintegrated.