I didn’t know that – Wicklow

Ardmore Studio and locations around Wicklow, such as Avoca, Kilruddary House and Powerscourt, feature in many well-known films and TV shows.

The Beit art collection at Russborough House has been robbed 4 times, first in 1974, then in 1986, again in 2001 and finally in 2002. Most of the paintings, by artists such a Vermeer, Gainsborough and Goya, have been recovered,

Avoca Handweavers was established in 1723.

Mining, for example for copper and sulphur, has been carried out in Avoca since at least 150 AD, when the area was included on Ptolemy’s map of Ireland at that time. Mining ceased in 1982.

Ireland’s gold rush started in 1795 with rumours that gold had been found in the Wicklow Mountains. The gold mines were operated for about 200 years.

Woodenbridge Hotel was established in 1608. The bridge in the village is now made from stone!

At about 130 m, Powerscourt waterfall is the highest waterfall in Ireland.

In 1720, Laurence Sterne, a 7-year-old boy, fell into a fast-running mill-race, was carried around the mill-wheel, and survived.

Robert Halpin, who captained the ship that laid the first transatlantic cable from Kerry to Newfoundland was born in Wicklow.

Avondale House, near Rathdrum, was the birth-place of Charles Stewart Parnell (1846 – 1891), a leader of the Irish Land League in the 1880s.

Wicklow