Windy Arbour, historically called Glassons, is a small suburban village in the Dundrum area of Dublin, Ireland. Situated between Dundrum and Milltown, along the banks of the Slang River (also Dundrum or Slann River).
The River Slang (Irish: Abhainn na Stéille), also known as the Dundrum Slang or the Dundrum River, a tributary of the River Dodder, is a stream which rises on Three Rock Mountain, County Dublin. It is in the jurisdiction of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
From Three Rock Woods on the northern slopes of Three Rock Mountain, the Slang flows down through Ticknock, passing Ballinteer north to Dundrum, where it (sometimes known this far as “Ticknock Stream” or “River Ann”) receives the Wyckham Stream, and then loops east, north, and west, coming to a mill pond north of the Dundrum Town Centre retail complex. The Slang then runs north via Windy Arbour and subsequently joins the River Dodder at Milltown, near the Nine Arches viaduct, now used by the Luas.
The small Wyckham Stream, joining from the west, is a natural tributary, visible on early maps, but was later connected to the Little Dargle River, further west, to take some of the flow of that river into the Slang, to increase the supply for powering of mills.
Today there is a walk made by the County Council from south Dundrum to Marlay Park, along part of the Slang, the Wyckham Stream, and part of the Little Dargle.
Unfortunately while I did take a number of photographs this was the only one that was useable as the low light performance of my camera is not the best.
A shape-shifting flock of thousands of starlings, called a murmuration, is amazing to see.
Ireland hosts hundreds of thousands of Starlings from numerous countries all over northern Europe each winter, and every evening they group together and perform mesmerising murmurations before settling down to roost together for the night. Wherever you are in Ireland, keep an eye on the sky from around an hour before sunset and you’ll likely see groups of Starlings all flying in the same direction – to a local lake to roost in the reedbeds on the lake fringes, or maybe to an area of forestry to roost in the trees.
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