What is recorded here

Local tradition places the 1580 Battle of Glenmalure on Lo Darrig, a grassy flat above the steep glen side in Ballinafunshoge and Cullentragh Park, where Francis Cosby is said to have fallen. The name may preserve log dearg, a red mountain feature in Wicklow speech, yet the flat itself suggests more than a ridge: a crowded killing ground where men clashed beneath a narrow sky. Even if the exact line of battle has blurred, the land still carries the shape of that violence, a red mark pressed into green mountain memory.

Price (1945, 16-7) recorded the placename Lo Darrig (log dearg) which he noted was ‘The local name for the grassy flat stretch at the top of the steep side of the glen, in Ballinafundhoge and Cullentragh Park. According to local tradition it was here that the battle of Glenmalure was fought in 1580 and that Francis Cosby was killed. After hearing the name pronounced several times, I believe it represents ‘log dearg’: in the Wicklow mountains the word ‘log’ has come to be applied to a mountain, as in Lugnaquillia, Lugduff, etc.’ The ITM coordinates provided here should only be considered indicative of the general location of the placename and not the location of the battle. (Grogan and Kilfeather 1997, no. 1198) Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 1 September 2017

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