Seahan is one of the four hills in the so called ‘Circuit of Kilbride’. Kilbride Rifle Range is an Army range on the Dublin/Wicklow border and it is nestled in a valley surrounded by Seahan, Corrig, Seefingan and Seefin. In fact these summits mark the boundary of the Rifle Range (Although strictly speaking the boundary passes within 150 metres of Seahan’s summit)
A minor road leads from Bohernabreena in Dublin past the entrance to the Range. Seahan can be reached from this road at O073200 A for example. At about 480 metres altitude this leaves a 160 metres climb to Seahan. There are remains of several megalithic tombs on Seahan. There are also good views towards Dublin and across to Seefingan and Seefin.
Because of the rather featureless nature of these hills it could be easy to become disoriented in poor weather which could mean an unintended descent into the Rifle Range. Seahan itself is generally ok underfoot, but the wider circuit includes some very wet and boggy cols. Also scramblers and quad bikes have churned up the bog in many places. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/200/comment/4960/

The name Seahan is said to come from ‘Suíochán’. On the Down Survey map of 1655 and on Rocque’s map of 1760, the mountain is called “Seavick na Bantree”, an anglicisation that suggests the translation ‘Seat (Suí) of the Widow’s Son’. The word “Suí” in one combination or another keeps coming up in other hilltop names in this area as well (Seefin, Seefingan), and it clearly refers in each case to the large megalithic tombs on those mountains. If we remember that the old Fenian Cycle in Irish literature situates some of the heroic feats of Finn MacCool and the Fianna in nearby Glenasmole and the hills around, I think it’s easy to understand how the popular imagination would see in these giant ‘seats’ the haunts of our Celtic supermen. Seefin (Suí Finn), just 3.5 kms to the south of Seahan, makes the association explicit.

There are no less than three megalithic tombs on Seahan. The cairn to the east is a passage tomb, over 21m in diameter, with a kerb of elongated granite stones. On top of the cairn can be seen the capstone (visible in the photo) over the central chamber. The second cairn, now topped with a trig pillar, is almost 24m in diameter and 2m high. It appears never to have been opened. A short distance further west lie the shattered remains of a wedge tomb – a kind of burial that is considered unusual above 300m.

Seahan can easily be included in a circuit that includes Corrig (the only top without a megalithic monument), Seefingan and Seefin. It’s a walk I have recorded as being approximately 12 kms. The route practically follows the boundary line and, indeed, the stumpy granite boundary markers (one of which sits atop the cairn on Seefingan) around the military firing-range of Kilbride and loops back along the stretch of road in front of it. To enjoy this walk, you definitely need either a good dry spell beforehand, or preferably hard frost. Otherwise, be prepared to get an unpleasant sinking feeling along many a stretch. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/200/comment/3552/

The OS sheet only indicates a cairn and megalithic tomb on top of Seahan, but there is also a wedge tomb only a stone’s throw just west of these two. To my mind, it’s the most photogenic of all three, despite the few shattered slabs that remain. It has had perhaps four thousand years of history wash over it and still resists. It has seen off the heroic huntsmen of the Fianna who allegedly roamed these hills and will see off too the mud-bespattered bikers who now rake up the earth around it. If you are looking for a little taste of timelessness, why not nestle down in the tomb and think yourself back into the mysterious world of the Neolithic chieftain who was once laid in it? Maybe the whisper you hear will not only be the rustle of the wind in the heather… Well, it’s just a suggestion.

Normally such tombs were not built above 300m, but this one lies at twice that height. Considering the many other tombs that bedeck all of these hills, one might sometimes feel like being in a necropolis here. In the photo, you can see Seefingan on the left, with its cairn, and Seefin on the right, with its impressive passage grave. Those living in the plains below could never have felt that their dead were far away.

In the photo you can also make out in the distance the snowy top of Mullaghcleevaun, with its north-facing corrie. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/200/comment/4494/

A very quick hike up Seahan starts the first of 4 mountains.Seahan,Corrig mt,Seefin and Seefingan Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/200/comment/5828/

Looking southwards from Seahan, the hazy planes of several hills seem to overlap in the distance: Seefingan, Seefin, Sorrel. In reality, they form, together with Seahan, a wide arc, with Seefingan at 2.67 kms distance, Seefin at 3.52, and Sorrel at 8.70, as the crow flies. They are all linked, too, through the presence of megalithic cairns on each one. The distant mounds are perfectly visible in the photo, at least at full resolution, and are not exactly on the summit of each hill but slightly lower down to the west, facing out across the fertile plain that laps up against the hills of north-west Wicklow, along the borders with Kildare and Dublin.

The picture that archaeology provides of this area gives enormous added interest to walking in these hills. It takes us back to the development of farming in neolithic times, when organised communities cultivated here the lowland fringes of the central plain, yet buried their eminent dead in elaborate hilltop tombs. The similarities in construction and symbolism all point to a common social and religious outlook that one would love to be able to grasp.

As far as the hills themselves are concerned, one thing that leaves me pensive is the fact that, even at that early stage, the human impact on the terrain was already quite notable. From an examination of the pollen record preserved deep in the bog (and one such study was made precisely in the area between Seefin and Seefingan), there is evidence of the prehistoric clearance of trees for pasture and of the later burning of the moorland that replaced the woods. Today we complain of the ugly clear-felling of forest and the recurring summertime ritual of turning the heather to ashes, but, for better or for worse, these are things that have been carried on here in the hills for well over four thousand years! Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/200/comment/3551/

Twenty five years ago I climbed Seahan on a cold winter’s day when the ground was covered in snow and the wind gave an almost arctic feel. The route taken that day was as described in the “Irish Walk Guides – East”. We decided to follow the route again last Sunday (the day of first incoming major storm of the winter). The route starts at the junction of the R114 with the road to Glenasmole at O08193 23076 B where there is a small pull-in suitable for a few cars. The original route passed through a gate on the south side of the junction and steeply up a field. Here we found our first obstacle which was a bracken and bramble covered slope. We declined a tussle with the vegetation and head off towards the SE along the Glenasmole road for about 300m until a forest road is met. This forest road was taken through mature woodland in a SE direction for about 700m to a switch back at O08545 22469 C. Soon after this the forest road peters out and a boundary is encountered with newer forestry to the west. This forestry wasn’t here on my last visit 25 years ago. A small cairn at O08332 22687 D makes an indistinct break in the forestry which leads uphill in a SW direction. Soon the break disappeared and we were forced to fight through the under storey of trees to eventually reach the top of Slievenabawnoge hill (O08068 22569 E). Another break in the trees headed off in a SSE direction to met an area of recent clear felled trees. This presented a new challenge of crossing piles of fallen branches and tree roots left after the felling until another stand of mature forestry was met. Now there was clear path along the side of the forestry heading uphill towards Seahan. Off-road motorbikes had been here before and churned up the path into a muddy wallow all the way to the top.

Our fight to the summit of Seahan by the chosen route was accompanied by increasing winds as the day wore on and the deep frontal depression approached Ireland. The summit of Seahan has a number of burial tombs which we believed to date from Neolithic times. Our assumption of their age was challenged by an ominous presence on the summit trig point – Darth Vader himself!. Resplendent with a glowing red ‘light’ sabre pointing to the north. Is Seahan some form of portal to Tatooine (Darth Vader’s home planet)?. Or perhaps he is warding off hillwalking invaders from the North?. We wait to see what happens in the next sequel/prequel of Star Wars – perhaps the Wicklow Mountains will be the battle ground between the Rebel Alliance (Mountainviewers) and the Empire (Mountaineering I…..).

Following our encounter with Darth Vader (and a quick traverse to Corrig and back) we beat a hasty retreat down back to the car pursued by now near gale force winds (MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU).

PS. I don’t recommend the route we took. A much easier route is now possible from the R114 by taking a forest track along the edge of the Kilbride rifle range at O073200 A as described by Wicklore. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/200/comment/6159/