191-- CohO.\^.— 'Bumf Ground Flo7'a of Kil/iney. 73 



its quota to the general scheme of decoration by illuminating 

 the obelisk on Killiney Hill. The point was rightly con- 

 sidered an admirably situated one for the purpose, and to 

 take full advantage of it, a scaffolding was run up round the 

 obelisk with high platforms for the discharge of rockets and 

 the display of red and blue fires. When the Killinev Hill 

 illuminations were set going at 10 o'clock on the night of 

 the King's arrival at Kingstown (July 7th), watchers by the 

 shores of the bay confessed to a feeling of disappointment, for 

 many of the rockets, though they soared into the night high 

 above the obelisk, failed to explode at their zenith and fell 

 back ineffectually, as it seemed, to the wooded hill slopes. 

 But those who remained abroad until the approach of mid- 

 night had no reason to be disappointed with the Killiney 

 illuminations. About that hour the whole hill -top was seen 

 to be on fire, and the decorative effect exceeded the most 

 sanguine expectations. The rockets had evidently exploded 

 amongst the old Gorse spinnies on the hill, and these, dry as 

 tinder from a long spell of fine weather, had caught fire in 

 many places at once. It seemed, indeed, as if Killiney would 

 be provided with an abiding memorial of the royal visit in 

 the shape of a ruined beauty-spot, for, viewed from the bay 

 shores a mile or so distant, the fire looked fierce enough to 

 destroy utterly the woods that clothe the hill -slopes. 



On the gth July, two days after the fire, I visited the hill 

 and w^as agreeably surprised to find the devastation less 

 serious than I had expected. Large areas of fine old Gorse 

 spinney near the summit and towards the east, north-east 

 and west slopes, were completely burnt, and here and there 

 the thin layer of peat underneath was still smouldering, 

 while in places an inch or so of the underlying soil was 

 calcined. But, happily, the efforts of the keepers had been 

 successful in saving the adjoining woods, only an occasional 

 tree on the edge of the burnt area having caught fire. A few 

 days later the charred stems of the old Gorse were cut down 

 and cleared off, leaving the blackened burnt areas, it is 

 hardly necessary to say, absolutely devoid of vegetation. 



On the 3rd September, less than two months after the fire, 



I made a first careful examination of the burnt ground with 



a3 



