An oasis of greenery in the rolling uplands

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/20/country-diary-co-wicklow-mountains

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Perspective is everything. The hillside, smooth as a billiard table when seen from a distance, is ankle-turning with tussock grass when crossed. The rolling uplands rising from the Cloghoge river stretch to the horizon dominated by the surrounding heights of Djouce mountain, Luggala, Carrigvore, the Tondruffs and War Hill. Few trees brave these windswept expanses, but in the valley bottom, where rivulets drain from the tops, they cluster to form oases of greenery in the midst of a seemingly uniform tawny-blanket of heather and dried grasses.

Breaking the monotony, groups of hare’s-tail cottongrass stand like mini bottle-brushes, ceaselessly swaying as the constant breeze buffets them. But look again, and this becomes a ravaged landscape. Here peat has been dug for generations, entrenching deep scars that will take millennia to heal, even though its removal has long since stopped. Yellowing sphagnum mosses cloak the surface of some cuts that hold their water longer than most. Blue heath speedwell and milkwort, and cream bedstraw add specks of colour to path edges.

A kestrel surveys this scene from a different vantage point. Pausing frequently as it ranges over the moor, at first it hangs in the air supported by the updraft, then hovers to examine the ground below. It does this time and again until it has gone beyond the conifer plantations lower down the valley. It may be lucky, for there we found a two-striped longhorn beetle walking along the top of the notice board at Ballinastoe, and other beetles dangerously exposed on footpaths through the heather.

We take Military Road back to Dublin. In a disused quarry, linnets forage and skylarks flit about as we examine nettles with beetroot-coloured stems. Close to where the Liffey rises, deep pink cuckoo-flowers are in full bloom. A mallard breaks cover, maybe to draw us away from her nest hidden close by the stream. The communication mast on the highest peak, Kippure, stands as a reminder that wilderness this may be, but its days of true wildness are past.