Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Draw Off Tower


Yesterday, we showed a photo of the picturesque Lower Vartry Reservoir, near Roundwood, Co Wicklow which has been in the news of late. Today we feature the Draw Off Tower which is located on the southern edge of the reservoir.

The Tower was featured in a scene from Wild Decembers, a major RTE TV drama based on the book of the same name by Edna O'Brien, shown during the Christmas holiday.




Water is piped from here right under the dam I'm standing on into the treatment plant behind and, after extensive filtration and purification, flows through a supposedly unstable 150 year old rock lined 4km-long tunnel bored through the Wicklow Mountains.  Its daily flow of 80 million litres represents about 20 per cent of the total of the water supply to the greater Dublin area.

Investigations undertaken within the past two years by external consultants on behalf of the city council uncovered a fault line in the rock which could collapse at any time.

The good news is that it's been there for 150 years.  We won't contemplate the bad!

2 comments:

Stefan Jansson said...

Wow, that second photo is great,and the same can be said about the tower.

RedPat said...

These are wonderful shots! Fascinating story too.

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