;Strongbow
and
Dermot
MacMurrough
successfully laid
siege to Dublin by following a high route through the Wicklow Mountains,
avoiding the defences along the normal route to the west of the mountains.
The Norman invasion displaced two
important
Gaelic
clans
from
Kildare,
the
O'Byrnes
and the
O'Tooles, who moved into the Wicklow
Mountains, the O'Byrnes in the east and the O'Tooles in the west.
From their mountain strongholds both
families conducted a persistent campaign of harassment against the invaders and
the Wicklow Mountains became known as the
terra guerre (“land of war”), as opposed to the
terrapacis (“land of peace”) of the settled
lowlands.
The valley of Glenmalure provided an almost unassailable refuge
for the clans and English forces suffered heavy defeats there, first in 1274
and again in 1580 in the
