Does Blessington lake give anyone else the creeps ?

sharkbite1983

at the weekend its a kip, during the week the lounge is grand, doesnt get busy & has darts & pool table.

The bar is always great craic, I play alot of darts in there.
I moved up from dublin a few years ago on my own, didnt know anyone in the village, now ive made dozens of friends & had some of the funniest night out in the Lakes!

Guinness69

A cousin of mine drowned in it years ago he was a toddler . He drowned with a lot of people around.

sharkbite1983

Sorry to hear that Guinness. The sad reality is that lake has claimed a lot of lives over the years. I know of at least 2 in the last 4 years, & at least 10 altogether.

Back to the original point of it looking spooky, the buildings from the old village are poking up from the water. Its the first time the lake has been this low since the 70's.

Coming from Dublin, go half way through the village, take the left at the AIB bank, and there's a little slip road down to your right. Park there at the gate, and keep heading down the path. Its a little overgrown, but its only a small 2 minute stroll.

The "church steeple" is a myth, the exposed ruins was actually an old mill house. Its eerie to see these ruins & know that's the 1st time they've seen light in nearly 40 years.

WIZE

sharkbite1983 wrote: »

Sorry to hear that Guinness. The sad reality is that lake has claimed a lot of lives over the years. I know of at least 2 in the last 4 years, & at least 10 altogether.

Back to the original point of it looking spooky, the buildings from the old village are poking up from the water. Its the first time the lake has been this low since the 70's.

Coming from Dublin, go half way through the village, take the left at the AIB bank, and there's a little slip road down to your right. Park there at the gate, and keep heading down the path. Its a little overgrown, but its only a small 2 minute stroll.

The "church steeple" is a myth, the exposed ruins was actually an old mill house. Its eerie to see these ruins & know that's the 1st time they've seen light in nearly 40 years.

was the mill house at the bridge

Guinness69

It must be very low to see the buildings. Got a lot of rain today. I had a kid and his friend fishing there today both 13 years old on their own. Was worried sick thinking about them. I must have phoned them 20 times checking on them. They are fishing mad and good swimmers . Safe around water but still I had the heebeegeebys lol if thats how you spell it. Anyway got them home safe and sound. They got a lift there and their mother collected them. Actually knowing they were going there today was got me to this board.

arctictree

We heard lots of stories when kids about how the lakes had big holes in them and people drowning.

All these stories seemed to be from people who couldn't swim. Surley, if you fell in and can swim, then you should be allright?

Ash.J.Williams

arctictree wrote: »

We heard lots of stories when kids about how the lakes had big holes in them and people drowning.

All these stories seemed to be from people who couldn't swim. Surley, if you fell in and can swim, then you should be allright?

The lake has some big traps that remain a mystery as those who have fallen victim have not come back to explain..
Thick quicksand like mud traps are one possibility..

sharkbite1983

arctictree wrote: »

We heard lots of stories when kids about how the lakes had big holes in them and people drowning.

All these stories seemed to be from people who couldn't swim. Surely, if you fell in and can swim, then you should be allright?

A friend of mine pulled 2 bodies out of that lake. 1 was suicide, 1 was a drunk that fell off the bridge.

Another victim who lived up in Lacken, dived off a boat, not realizing there was a big bank of land a few feet under the water, broke his neck.
I think his brother also drowned in the lake, tragic stuff altogether.

I believe the main reason its so dangerous is because of the dam gates. The water under the surface moves 2 or 3 times faster than the surface. If you pop your head under for a minute, you dont know where you'll end up, or if you'll be able to resurface.

Also, there gas pockets in the marshy ground at the bottom. You could be swimming along the bottom, & suddenly be sucked into the vacuum where the ground releases the air, and sucks you in.

Sounds like something from a sci-fi.
All that a side, its a beautiful area, I for one am so so happy I moved up there. Great pubs, fishing, hiking, etc. & only ten mins from dublin.

sharkbite1983

WIZE wrote: »

was the mill house at the bridge

Before the bridge, closer to the village.
I think its called May's Bay.
After turning at the AIB, the slip down to the right is just after the health bord office. Before Super Valu car park or the bridge.

Ash.J.Williams

sharkbite1983 wrote: »

Before the bridge, closer to the village.
I think its called May's Bay.
After turning at the AIB, the slip down to the right is just after the health bord office. Before Super Valu car park or the bridge.

Millbank it's called..a popular place in the memories of Blesso peoples youth! Not so sure if the young folk still hang around there these days, they have street corners now!!

ah,sure

Great pictures of pre-Lake days down in the Avon Ri, was down there last night.
I've lived in Blesso since 97 yet never swam in it.

ah,sure

Yeah we did some drinking down the Millbank.... then Dempseys lane

chuck eastwood

God my mis spent youth was all about the mill bank and Dempseys lane. Funny you should talk about the dangers of the lake. I knew a couple of people who lost there lives in the lake. I live about a hundred yards from it. Tonight a local gaurd was swept away by flood waters while directing traffic away from the danger. The guy was off duty. The news is only a couple of hours old and i hope to god its wrong. You can f%$k with the local's, f&%k with the pubs but dont **** with the lake

sharkbite1983

chuck eastwood wrote: »

God my mis spent youth was all about the mill bank and Dempseys lane. Funny you should talk about the dangers of the lake. I knew a couple of people who lost there lives in the lake. I live about a hundred yards from it. Tonight a local gaurd was swept away by flood waters while directing traffic away from the danger. The guy was off duty. The news is only a couple of hours old and i hope to god its wrong. You can f%$k with the local's, f&%k with the pubs but dont **** with the lake

I'm afraid it's true. He was directing traffic off ballysmutton bridge when it happened, god help him. Im not sure if the new bridge is still standing. Seeing as the old one was washed away a couple of years ago.

ah,sure

sharkbite1983 wrote: »

chuck eastwood wrote: »

God my mis spent youth was all about the mill bank and Dempseys lane. Funny you should talk about the dangers of the lake. I knew a couple of people who lost there lives in the lake. I live about a hundred yards from it. Tonight a local gaurd was swept away by flood waters while directing traffic away from the danger. The guy was off duty. The news is only a couple of hours old and i hope to god its wrong. You can f%$k with the local's, f&%k with the pubs but dont **** with the lake

I'm afraid it's true. He was directing traffic off ballysmutton bridge when it happened, god help him. Im not sure if the new bridge is still standing. Seeing as the old one was washed away a couple of years ago.

praying tonight. I know the lad... No body found yet.

chuck eastwood

I dont know him but friends do. It's tragic. Hope to god he's just stuck somewhere. waiting up to here from the lads. I think there a good few out looking now.

vampire of kilmainham

i bet there are plenty of ghost stories about that lake

Jackonthebox

I always found the idea of it creepy and spooky.. For me its because even though it looks stunning it is Man made and artifcial. It hides to the naked eye what lies beneath and that means things like the village of Ballyhown, where people lived untill they were relocated before they flooded the land after building Poulaphouca Dam. The village is completely submerged but the roof tops have been seen when the waters have lowered. Now.. THAT! scares the ****e out of me!.. Reminds me of the film Deliverance.

Ash.J.Williams

just to add to the creepiness..at the "castle" ruin on the burgage lake shore, there was once a graveyard..all the bodies were dug up and reinterred in burgage cemetary....who's to say one or two were left behind?

Imagine how creepy the carts of dug up coffins were heading up the hill to the "new" graveyard"

on another note...lots of people swimming there at the weekend....not a good idea

Jackonthebox

Thanks for that I wont be able to sleep tonight now! I think I remember a group of lads from Whitehall in Dublin drowned after going for a midnight dip with drink on them about 20 odd years ago.. it took a while to find them..I couldnt think of a creepier way to go. To be in darkness in an underwater graveyard that reclaims its dead..Thats a Stephen King novel,thats what thats like..

Ash.J.Williams

Some of the people who were displaced didn't leave willingly, and the compensation paid to them to vacate their property was pittance, so angry grave dwelling zombies are a possiblity.

westwicklow

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Some of the people who were displaced didn't leave willingly....

Part of my Grandfather's farm was flooded and it's now such a strange sensation with the regular realisation that I boat over his "meadows"!

Some of the [older] people in the area were totally against their hard earned, hard got, hard worked, inherited, family homes and land being flooded, where they called home, where they lived, worked, fought, farmed, where they fed their families, cut their meadows and turf, struggling along, side by side with their multi-generational families, neighbours, friends and foes.

So many were to be physically dragged out of their humble homes, kicking and screaming in a terror of revolt and revulsion as the ESB's rising water inched up the river, the valley, up the fields, the roads, up the yards, the doorsteps, up the stairs...covering up every witness to the real world of so many innocents - people wailing aloud and wanting to go down with everything their lives, their livelihood's had ever offered them... witnessed by priests, ministers, police, even the army were involved in blowing up some of the original buildings etc.

It's hard to imagine now the extent of the disruption to every living man, woman and child, every animal, every possession and, goodness me, even the dead were disinterred by eerie moonlight, following the repositioning of St. Boathin’s Celtic Cross (now called St. Mark’s Cross), as in the foreground of the men digging with their shovels and spades in near darkness, the horses to move the bodies, the wailing and praying, coffins cracking open in the night, incense burning to stop the stench, liberal sprinklings of holy water... behind them the cold, murky lake-water relentlessly crept up higher and higher... but, not every body was saved from submergence.... human bones have been found washed up, offered up by the lapping of the lake - it doesn’t want the living or the dead!

In the end, our people just had to get out and stay out, moved out and moved on.... it wasn't easy then and it's still not easy, not ever easy, the not forgotten, not washed away by the waves of water or the waves of time.....

Oh and as we still say around here: "the water's the Sheriff!!"

Ash.J.Williams

westwicklow wrote: »

Part of my Grandfather's farm was flooded and it's now such a strange sensation with the regular realisation that I boat over his "meadows"!

Some of the [older] people in the area were totally against their hard earned, hard got, hard worked, inherited, family homes and land being flooded, where they called home, where they lived, worked, fought, farmed, where they fed their families, cut their meadows and turf, struggling along, side by side with their multi-generational families, neighbours, friends and foes.

So many were to be physically dragged out of their humble homes, kicking and screaming in a terror of revolt and revulsion as the ESB's rising water inched up the river, the valley, up the fields, the roads, up the yards, the doorsteps, up the stairs...covering up every witness to the real world of so many innocents - people wailing aloud and wanting to go down with everything their lives, their livelihood's had ever offered them... witnessed by priests, ministers, police, even the army were involved in blowing up some of the original buildings etc.

It's hard to imagine now the extent of the disruption to every living man, woman and child, every animal, every possession and, goodness me, even the dead were disinterred by eerie moonlight, following the repositioning of St. Boathin’s Celtic Cross (now called St. Mark’s Cross), as in the foreground of the men digging with their shovels and spades in near darkness, the horses to move the bodies, the wailing and praying, coffins cracking open in the night, incense burning to stop the stench, liberal sprinklings of holy water... behind them the cold, murky lake-water relentlessly crept up higher and higher... but, not every body was saved from submergence.... human bones have been found washed up, offered up by the lapping of the lake - it doesn’t want the living or the dead!

In the end, our people just had to get out and stay out, moved out and moved on.... it wasn't easy then and it's still not easy, not ever easy, the not forgotten, not washed away byu othe waves of water or the waves of time.....

Oh and as we still say around here: "the water's the Sheriff!!"

That's possibly the best description I've ever read about this topic. I've often been tempted to go and view the survey that was carried out prior to the flooding, it's in a Dublin library. I doubt they did a great job. Ive often thought some of the bodies would have been simply left behind. Your description backs up that assumption. I think there is an audio record from eye witnesses, I think rte played it in the 80s. Mrs twyford is a name I recall from it.

Rock fan

I heard there is hairy fish at the bottom of it !

westwicklow

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

That's possibly the best description I've ever read about this topic.... Mrs twyford is a name I recall from it.

Thank you for your compliment and yes, the Twyford family name still remains in the area. Bet they have interesting family history stories!

WIZE

My Grandmother was born is this house

I believe her Maiden name was Moore

westwicklow

Fantastic photograph WIZE, it's great to see how things were for people once upon a time.... not so long ago.

Ash.J.Williams

WIZE wrote: »

My Grandmother was born is this house

I believe her Maiden name was Moore

amazing pic, and least one of those buildings at the mill and most of the bridge supports are still there (under water) they were revealed back in the 80's during a hot summer. The army tried to blow them up but failed. Last year we had a little bit of roof visible..I've often wondered what it would be like if they drained it for a week or two, although I believe the lake is critical for dublin water.

ps
I've also wondered what the impact would be if the dam burst! That would be one for the CGI experts!! Bye bye ballymore maybe??

Ash.J.Williams

Rock fan wrote: »

I heard there is hairy fish at the bottom of it !

yes "crike" half pike half crocodile, vicious little feckers

westwicklow

It's my understanding that the primary function of flooding our valley was to supply water to Dublin City. Electricity generation was a secondary function.