Larch Hill

rugbug86

Anyone got any stories to share? I loved larch hill, always such a laugh. the playground is the best!

and the discos in the hall...

anyone on melvin there in 2000? (i think it was 2000 anyway...!)

Ron DMC

And the obstacle course, I've spent more time there than I should have....

rugbug86

the farmer in his little farm across the river... he shot at me one more than one occasion!
most memorable was when he actually chased us back up to the potato field shouting random obscenities. twas hilarious.

oh and the dolmen - love that!

tSubh Dearg

In all my long, long time in the Guides I only went to Larch Hill for the first time in April of this year. We took the girls up to teach them how to light a fire and then cook over it.

But it seems like a really good place to take them camping some time.

rugbug86

tSubh Dearg wrote:

In all my long, long time in the Guides I only went to Larch Hill for the first time in April of this year. We took the girls up to teach them how to light a fire and then cook over it.

But it seems like a really good place to take them camping some time.

the BEST place to go camping. especially if there's other troops there - make friends!

cuckoo

rugbug86 wrote:

the BEST place to go camping. especially if there's other troops there - make friends!

yeah, we used to go there with the guides. we'd unpack our gear at the bottom of a hill and make friends with whatever scouts were around - they'd help us carry our stuff up and we'd hang out with them at the huge campfire. Good days.

Kingp35

rugbug86 wrote:

anyone on melvin there in 2000? (i think it was 2000 anyway...!)

Yeah I was at that one with the Dalkey scouts. Was great fun. We got disqualified from the camp fire competition because our routine was a little too sexually graphic for some of the more innocent scout leaders They let us back in though with a different song and we came third. We also came second in that cart race thing. Other than that we were rubbish. Never take it too seriously.

I was sick of Larch Hill at one stage because went there so often. It is a bit of fun though at times

The Free Man

i remember going here a long time ago, and as we were all young.. there were vicious rumours of it being haunted. everybody was scared ****less at nighttime!!
i also vaguely remember finding a swimming pool that was infested with baby frogs...

neilled

rugbug86 wrote:

Anyone got any stories to share? I loved larch hill, always such a laugh. the playground is the best!

and the discos in the hall...

anyone on melvin there in 2000? (i think it was 2000 anyway...!)

Yep, if I'm correct that was the year of the Glen of Immal!!!!!!!!!!!! Edit, Glen of Imall was 1999.

Ron DMC

neilled wrote:

Yep, if I'm correct that was the year of the Glen of Immal!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I remember it. We had to bivvy out on the army camp, but us being the lazy folk that we are found a random table lying around and half of us slept under that.
Hmmm, what else do I remember from that Melvin, ah yes, lot's of singing Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Kingp35

neilled wrote:

Yep, if I'm correct that was the year of the Glen of Immal!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yes I remember that now myself. Lots of spent bullet shells etc around the place. Also if I remember right the campfire competiton, well the first part anyway, was held there as well. Thats where our disqualification and then re-addmitance after much debate between myself and the main guy that was there happened In all fairness our routine was deemed fine on the regional shield that we had in Lough Dan I think ( you may remember that Ronny if you were involved then) so I think on that basis they let us back in again provided we did a different song.

Ron DMC

Kingp35 wrote:

In all fairness our routine was deemed fine on the regional shield that we had in Lough Dan I think ( you may remember that Ronny if you were involved then) so I think on that basis they let us back in again provided we did a different song.

Yeah that was a good campfire alright. That clinched yous a good few points, and tbh that's how I think you guys beat us.:D

Kingp35

Ronny Mitchell wrote:

Yeah that was a good campfire alright. That clinched yous a good few points, and tbh that's how I think you guys beat us.:D

yeah I remember it was very close. TBH I think it was always close between Dalkey and Blackrock. I remember losing on a uniform inspection to you guys before. That hurt

neilled

Campfires were always a laugh - we had a few sucess there and appeared in the final about 3 times with Crime Watch, Dance of the Little People and "Hypnotism"

GusherING

I always remember Larch Hill for being covered in cow****. Oh and all the good times as well.;)

Red Fan X5

GusherING wrote:

I always remember Larch Hill for being covered in cow****. Oh and all the good times as well.;)

It wasn't cow****, it was sheep****.:) Our troop even had their Annual Camp there back in the 80's and we were from Dublin :eek: . We nearly closed down because alot of the scouts went home due to the bad weather and lack of facillities.:( Still we will return again shortly.

Kadeshh

have to say never really liked larch hill that much....

its nothing compared to lough dan!

Binomate

I remember colaborating with a group of young scouts who wanted to play "Catch and Kill" in the woods to the east to the South East of the place. I also remember hippies out picking mushrooms from the many ditches there were around the place.

familyguy

Our leader always insists on Kelly's Field (the one furthest from the car park).

Being furthest away means a little more time at night before the wardens come up to [attempt to] enforce lights out, and a little more peace and quiet (very important for some of our ageing leaders )
It's always fun trying to get a trailer full of gear up there, and it's miles to the bogs, but that's what the forest's for.

Gillo

Was that the year the ventures went up to erect the Venture Gate?

A group of ventures from Donnybrook, Lusk and Skerries went up with a view to erect a Pioneering Gate, it was meant to commerate something. Unfortuately we didn't get it built but fun was had by all not to mention a "interesting" lunch. It was the weekend of the Melvin and what the Melvin did for Scouting in the values sense, the Ventures did for scounting in the fun sense.

My own troop never made it to the Melvin, I was amazed at the quality of the sites. When is the next one on? Is it still open to the public at some stage??

EBrohoon

My guides love larch hill, they want to go at least once a year. Don't ask me why! Last time we were there the lovely staff scared the **** out of all the guides. So the guides decided the best thing to do would go exploring and check if the blue lady story was true oh and there just happened to be a few groups of scouts there that weekend! It was great having to go searching for them with the scout leaders but at least they weren't up to anything :rolleyes:

tumeltyni

Was anyone here at Hill '96? I was a junior leader there that year, great craic. Until I ended up on crutches...

catch--22

I have so many great memories of Larch Hill! A great campsite and a great asset to the association!

stipey

I was up there more times than I care to remember with the 111th Springfield troop. We never won anything - but we always had mental fun.

I remember we went up there for about 10 days one summer and one night somehow we managed to get one lad out of his tent into a wheelbarrow, over to the next field and into the tent of another sleeping troop without waking anybody up. I would have loved to see his (and their) faces the next morning - we had him convinced he was sleep walking.

Nevyn

The mid night hike up to the hell fire club...

catch--22

stipey wrote:

I was up there more times than I care to remember with the 111th Springfield troop. We never won anything - but we always had mental fun.

I remember we went up there for about 10 days one summer and one night somehow we managed to get one lad out of his tent into a wheelbarrow, over to the next field and into the tent of another sleeping troop without waking anybody up. I would have loved to see his (and their) faces the next morning - we had him convinced he was sleep walking.

ha ha! that's brilliant!

Gillo

stipey wrote:

I was up there more times than I care to remember with the 111th Springfield troop. We never won anything - but we always had mental fun.

I remember we went up there for about 10 days one summer and one night somehow we managed to get one lad out of his tent into a wheelbarrow, over to the next field and into the tent of another sleeping troop without waking anybody up. I would have loved to see his (and their) faces the next morning - we had him convinced he was sleep walking.

Respect!!!!
I used to be in 24th Tallaght, we like yourselves always seemed to lose out to Oldbawn, Walkinstown and someother troop; but from what I remember we had way more fun!!!!!

dcfac

Larch Hill holds so many amazing memories!

Coming first in our first Shield... and then coming last in our last Shield- our troop arrived up with a dome tent and a plastic fold out table from Argos!

Instead of actually working at the bases, we just chatted to the leaders... one of the girls in our troop ended up going out with one of them afterwards! At the First Aid base, instead of helping a guy who had been "stabbed", we gave him a funeral and then contemplated stealing his watch. The people running the base tried to be serious, but we even had them laughing by the end!

All the random weekends that we headed up... I remember one weekend daring one of the guys to run around in a tiny pink dress, down by the car park and the office!

All the campfires... hiding with my friends as they smoked their way through packets of cigarettes without being caught by our leader. Those ghost stories that scared the bejaysis out of us as cubs

Hours swinging in the Beaver playground, talking about love, life and basically anything that came into our heads

Discos in the wet weather shelter "ROCK THE BOAT!"

Drinking litres and litres of tea in the HQ kitchen

Trying to convince the "nearby" take away to deliver up after 11pm

Midnight wide games!

Waterfights on those seldom yet glorious hazy summer days

Playing tip rugby/frisbee/football in the Cub field

Watching movies in the hostel with enough junk food to sink the Titanic...

Learning to play poker, and becoming an expert.

All the friends I have made there- and still in contact with so many of them!

That Tuck Shop... with its infamous queues. The sugar I bought there fuelled me for whole weekends at a time.

The classical music that they play in the toilets???

At the last Patrol Training weekend we had, dunking the poor unfortunate scouts' heads into the river as part of the "initiation" process... but really just for our entertainment.

Ah good lordy lord- there are just too many memories!!! And I don't know the next time I'll be heading back up...

I've many, many wonderful memories of Larch Hill from my days as a young Cub in '86 onwards (my first annual Cub camp).

I do remember a National Cub day there in '88. Had a great badge to commemorate it (a giant looking down on two Cubs).

Lots of Scouting ones, my favourite was always going there on patrol camp. (Walking down to "An Shiopa Beag" - don't know if it's even there anymore).

My patrol winning our regional shield in 1995. Being told I was to old to enter the Melvin the same year, so being offered a place on the Melvin staff instead.

Didn't go much in Venturer's - we mostly went hosteling.

A truly wonderful place.

Is the story about the nurse who was murdered (decapitated) by an manic inmate on that standing stone doing the rounds???

Captain Flaps

It's no Lough Dan, but I have had some good times there. Best was when the leaders pretended to sever a hand during the axe and saw to show us cubs the dangers of acting the maggot!

Alz®

Gillo wrote: »

Respect!!!!
I used to be in 24th Tallaght, we like yourselves always seemed to lose out to Oldbawn, Walkinstown and someother troop; but from what I remember we had way more fun!!!!!

Willington most likely, they seem to win all the time same with Knocklyon...

I was in the 168th Tymon North from Beavers thru Cubs and Scouts and now im back as a leader, still go to Larchill, yes it has changed and for the better...

reelynicenurse

Spent a very lovely weekend in Larch Hill last week, hadn't been there in too long! We even had sunshine for Saturday and only a small rain shower on the Sunday moning. The place looks great -we were in potato field and the new activity equipment is fun - our kids got very muddy and loved it! Can't wait to go back again.

Terry

Thaedydal wrote: »

The mid night hike up to the hell fire club...

We weren't allowed to do that.


We did most of our camping in Leixlip. Good ol' Dessie Guinness gave access to the scouts to the Obelisk.
The story was that if you walked around it at midnight saying the lord's prayer backward, that the devil would appear.
It doesn't work.

I still have good memories of Larch Hill though. Most are those you had to be there type stories though.

Hmm. 21 years ago. I'm old.

Roddy23

Ah Larch Hill, that place has some memories. Was in the scouts for about 5years, until i was about 17. Great craic up there. Remember about 4 or 5 of us went up on our own one weekend, savage weather, and someone had cleared out the outdoor pool, or at least we thought they had. All of us in the pool, when one of the lads got out, and noticed little insects stuck to his skin. Feckin leaches all over us. Was class though, midnight hikes, the messing ye'd get up to. Heard that one about the nurse alright, the ghost sighting's down by the tomb, and down by the field they used for the Regional shield.

Has anyone been up there recently, would love to go back up just to see how it looks. Is it open to the public, or would ye have to find your old woggle and neckerchief?

jeffk

I was on one of my many days out in Wicklow and realized I was near this place and decided to drop over, I had herself with me and delighted to show her it.

I used to be in the 109Th Corduff group and have many great memories up there, even when I went back as a Cub leader and the last time to help on a midnight hike and ended up doing the hike.

• Being in the field beside the carpark alot and the chipper driving up the field to deliver to us
  
• Some old man we called the beardy fella(staff I think)who never talked
  
• The famous sweet shop
  
• Putting people in tractor tyres and pushing them down a hill, the farmer across the river wasn’t best pleased when it hit his fence
  
• The campfire at night
  
• Going to mass in the shed
  
• Sheep and their leavings everywhere
  
• The famous blue lady etc stories(was reminded of some picture in the check in office that keeps falling down) and how we didnt sleep after it
  
• Having to walk to the fork in the road to get the bus home(also remember being chased by dogs just outside the entrance)

Other stories involving burnt sausages/dodgy food, cans in a bag in the river and hiding them at the camp-fire, visiting the pub down the road and all other messing that didn’t happen

Beer Assistant

Larch Hill,

Went up there for different reason's to Scouting, use to cycle up there everyday for 6 months on a Federations of Irish cyclist/Fas course,

Some damage was done cycling back down in the evenings.

s14barnes

Hill 98' was my first proper camping trip.. was great fun and well organized ..
used to love the campfires..