Turlough Hill 6th Class Trip

On the 12th of May 2026, our class (6th class) went on a trip to Turlough Hill in the Wicklow Mountains. We are here to tell you about our experience at the power generation plant.

Bit of Background:

Turlough Hill is a hydro power station that works by pushing water from the top lake to the bottom one and vice versa. The top lake is an artificial lake whereas the bottom is a real one called Lough na Hannigan.

The Conference Room:

Upon arrival, we were greeted by Jonathan (my dad), an ESB worker, who led us into the building. It was a big grey building on one side a power station and on the other a security box. We filed into a big room that had a curved table, chairs and a whiteboard on the wall across from the chairs. Then another ESB worker walked in and introduced himself as Kevin. They were all dressed in neon yellow work clothes with neon yellow hardhats and big earmuffs. They had walkie-talkies clipped to their work tops. They also had protective glasses. We all sat down and Kevin played an introduction video on the whiteboard about the history of the power plant and how it worked. Afterwards, Kevin brought half of us into a side room with boxes of high vises and orange hard hats. Once we all had our gear on, we were led back to the conference room and Jonathan took the other half to get their gear on. Once they returned, we were led outside, and the two workers led us into the long tunnel.

The Tunnel

The tunnel is a long, manmade path that led to the transformers, control room, and cooling room. Our voices echoed in the tall area, the ground slippy underfoot from the recent rain. There were lots of carvings and marks on the stone walls.

About five minutes into the walk, we stumbled upon a large crevice on the right hand side of the stone structure. In it, there were diggers, slates of metal stacked one on top of the other, large bins. Not a long time afterwards, we saw cars parked at the side of the path. Jonathan told us of the safety measures the workers who parked cars there had to take. They had to park the cars facing the exit, leave the windows open, and leave their keys in the ignition. “I wonder if they have ever needed it” I thought to myself. The answer was luckily no, but I hadn't known that back then. The further we went into the tunnel, the louder a strange buzzing sound became until we ended our walk facing a huge fence-like door.

The Transformer Room

It was a big, bright room larger than the school hall. There were these big, yellow, cylinder containers sticking out of the ground and they looked like oil containers. I then found out that they were called TRANSFORMERS. Our class was split into two groups. One went with Kevin, the other with Jonathan. Anna and I went with Kevin. We were led over to a big silver container like the yellow ones sticking out of the ground. We found out that it contained 41,000 tonnes of oil, which is changed every five years. Also it had lots of copper gears (further outside the room, in the tunnel, there was a big opening in the mountain. There was a spare transformer in the opening). Once the other group were finished in the control room, we were led upstairs into the control room.

The Control Room/Observation Deck

We were led into a large metal room. There were lots of buttons all over the back wall. It took a lot of self-restraint not to run around pressing all the buttons. There were a dozen computers on the desk, some were for the river Liffey, and some other lakes that Turlough Hill kept track of. A worker named Gary told us facts and information about what they did. While he was explaining alarms kept going off interrupting him a lot. Every time they went off, he would dial a number on one of the numerous telephones he had. When he was finished explaining he told us how he was going to turn a transformer on. We got all excited but I was slightly apprehensive about what was about to happen. The floor had already been vibrating gently what was going to happen when the energy went through the floor we were standing on? Luckily, nothing bad happened but the floor did vibrate way harder but seeing the virtual lake slowly filling up was very satisfying. Afterwards, we started climbing lots of stairs and waited for the other group to come. We were going to go into an air passage where the part of the facility underground got their fresh air from. When we were all filed in, Kevin and Jonathan opened the door.

Fresh Air Passage

The moment they opened that door a blast of cold air hit us in the face. We had been warned that there were a lot of stairs but I mean there were A LOT of stairs.

“Why does this make me feel like I'm in a cage in a fridge?”I wondered as I climbed,the floor was grated like a cage and the fridge reference is kind of obvious. By the time we reached the top, most of us were breathing deeply but it was worth it because we were finally back outside.

The Lake

Let me tell you this, I have never realised how nice the fresh air and colours were:)The birds were chirping, the sun was warm on our faces (for once) and the lake looked lovely and blue. We gathered a safe distance away from the rocky slope going down to Lough Na Hannigan. When everybody was out of the passage, we made our way back to where we started. It was very reassuring that the lake had never flooded before.

Goodies and Goodbyes

We went back into the building to take off our vests and hard-hats. Then we filed in a single file line (not actually single) to get a gift. Jonathan gave some goodies to Mr Byrne to hand out to us when we got back (we didn't get them that day). We were then given an ESB three-coloured highlighter and a little notebook and pen complete with some sticky notes. When Kevin and Jonathan had finished giving us a thank you, we boarded the bus. Anna and I sat up the front to record some facts we learnt. We stopped to eat our lunch at the carpark and we sat on rocks. Packets went running free with the wind.

We all really enjoyed it and it was a really interesting trip. We learned lots and we hope you did from this recount.

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