Chris O'Byrne - Fun

In the spirit of the Degree Confluence project and the Corner Corner, I would like to invite people to visit the Irish county tripoints and take photographs. A county tripoint is a place where three counties meet at a single point.

First tripoint - Dublin / Kildare / Meath

Not far from Leixlip is the point where Counties Dublin, Kildare and Meath meet. Click on the photograph below to download a larger version. I visited this tripoint on 18 Feb 2001.

Studying my Ordnance Survey atlas of Dublin City and surrounding area, I found this tripoint on one of the maps. The map suggested that the Meath border at the tripoint was being carried in a stream, with the Dublin - Kildare border coming up to it from the south-southwest. There wasn't anything marked on the map which suggested how one would determine the exact location of the Dublin - Kildare border, but I decided that I should be able to find the local southerly extremity of the stream which the map suggested was at the tripoint.

Interestingly, when I studied the same area on my Discovery series map number 50, it seemed to suggest that the Dublin - Kildare border turned to the west before the Meath border reached the stream, and that the three met not far from the road. But looking at my "Ireland East" map, it seemed that the tripoint was probably, indeed, in the stream.

Arriving in the afternoon, I parked the car in Co. Kildare, and made my way to a field which seemed to be leading in the right direction. I found that I was approaching the suspected tripoint from the south-southwest, so I reckoned I was walking beside the Dublin - Kildare border. Since there was a tiny stream to my right, I decided that must be the border itself.

Shortly, I found the larger stream which evidently was the one carrying the Meath border that was marked on the map. And the small stream to my right did, indeed, meet the larger one at a local southern extremity. The photo above is the best of the ones that I took from the tripoint.