Open [3.3 MB]

LEINSTER 43
Arklow itself is an ancient town, whose name keeps,
like Wicklow, a memory of Danish beacon fires
"low" or "lue" is the word for flame (still preserved
in lowland Scotch). Its population keep the hardy
seagoing tradition—Ireland has no better fishermen;
but they are incommoded by an odd circumstance.
At this point of the coast there is practically no
rise and fall of tide, and many a useful harbour is
useful only because it can be reached with the flood,
which never comes to Arklow.
Here first one meets a landmark of the great
"ninety-eight" rising. The Wexford insurgents re-
ceived at Arklow the decisive check which curbed
their very wonderful successes. The rebellion spread
no farther north, though, after the rout of Vinegar
Hill, stray parties of fugitives maintained themselves
for long enough in the mountains where the meeting
waters have their rise.
To reach this wider and more open region — far
less beautiful, yet having for some eyes an even greater
charm—you should follow up the valley of the Aughrim
River. A train will take you to Aughrim town, then
comes a road, passing at first between slopes of culti-
vated and well-planted land. But as you go on, the
valley widens and spreads, the woods recede, and before
you are the great brown flanks of Lugnaquilla, highest
of all the Wicklow Mountains — higher indeed than
—