Avoca () is a small town near

Arklow Arklow (; ; , ) is a town in County Wicklow on the southeast coast of Ireland. The town is overlooked by Ballymoyle Hill. It was founded by the Vikings in the ninth century. Arklow was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 r ...

, in

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It is situated on the River Avoca. The Avoca area has been associated with its

copper mine Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, loca ...

s for many years and the valley has been celebrated by

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...

in the song " The Meeting of the Waters". The name of the song derives from the meeting of the Avonmore and Avonbeg rivers, about 3 kilometres from the village of Avoca. The song is said to have been written under a tree, the stump of which remains by the Meetings. Avoca is also famous for its handweaving, with Avoca Handweavers based there. Avoca has been used as a filming location for several films and television series. The BBC series ''

Ballykissangel ''Ballykissangel'' is a BBC television drama created by Kieran Prendiville and set in Ireland, produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland. The original story revolved around a young English Roman Catholic priest as he became part of a rural co ...

'' was filmed there. In 1967, Avoca was one of the locations used in the film '' Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon'', and it was the setting for the comedy film '' Zonad'' which had a general Irish release in 2010. The

red kite The red kite (''Milvus milvus'') is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other Diurnality, diurnal Bird of prey, raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harrier (bird), harriers. The species currently b ...

, recently reintroduced to Ireland, is now commonly seen in and around Avoca.

Toponymy

Avoca was once known as Newbridge. It subsequently became known as Ovoca, and then in

Victorian times In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

as Avoca.

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of import ...

mentions the river Oboka on his early map of

. The official name of the village is now Avoca in English and in Irish. None of the other names is used today.

Mining

Copper mining is reported to have begun in the Avoca River valley around 1720 and it continued, with interruptions, until 1982. Earlier mining, perhaps dating back to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

, may have occurred. The East Avoca site, today, is composed mainly of a number of rock waste spoil heaps, abandoned

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...

(Cronebane and East Avoca open pits) and disused roads. The largest spoil heap, Mount Platt, was built up from waste rock excavated from Cronebane open pit. There was a mineral tramway built from the West Avoca mines, through the village (on the opposite side of the river) and on to Arklow Harbour. The route of most of this was subsumed into the Dublin-Rosslare railway line, but an arch and a tunnel under the road from Rathdrum to Avoca remains. AvocaRiver+Village

Transport

Avoca lies on the R752

regional road The term regional road (or route) is used in a number of places to designate roads of more than purely ''local'' but less than ''national'' strategic importance in a country's highway network. It is used formally and officially in reference to: *R ...

linking Rathnew with

Woodenbridge Woodenbridge () is a small village in County Wicklow, Ireland. It lies between Arklow and Avoca, at the meeting of the '' Avoca'', '' Aughrim'' and ''Goldmine'' rivers. The village is located at the junction of the R747 and R752 roads. The ...

. The village is served by

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Ireland, with the exception of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subs ...

route 133 from

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

(66 km) and

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has ...

(21 km) to

(10 km), with two departures in each direction on Mondays to Saturdays and one each way on Sundays. There has been some local political pressure to reopen

Avoca railway station Avoca railway station is a railway station on the Avoca line in the town of Avoca, Victoria. It was first opened on Saturday, 21 October 1876 however was closed for gauge conversion on Friday, 14 April 1995. Again the railw ...

, from which passenger services were withdrawn on 3 March 1964, almost 101 years after its opening, on the Dublin-Rosslare railway line, on 18 July 1863.

International relations

Avoca has a

town twinning A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are ...

agreement with Bromham, Wiltshire in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Notable people

* Noel Andrews (1932–2011), Irish radio and television commentator ran The Avoca Inn from 1970-1990 * George Barret Sr. (c. 1730–1784), Irish landscape artist painted at Avoca * Niall Byrne, guitarist in Irish band The Redneck Manifesto * Oliver Byrne (1810–1880),

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

and author of scientific works was born in the Vale of Avoca * Harry Harrison (1925–2012), American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

author lived in the area in the 1970s * Lawrence Kavenagh (c. 1810–1846), Irish-Australian

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...

bushranger Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in Australia, convicts in the early years of the History of Australia (1788–1850), British settlement of Australia who used The bush#Australia, the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. B ...

was born in either Newbridge (now called Avoca) or nearby Rathdrum * Pauline Mellon, Irish mathematician was born in the town * Abraham Mills (c. 1750–1828), English mining company manager and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alt ...

, one of the earliest advocates of investment in Irish gold mining, spent time mining for copper in Avoca *

John O'Hagan John O'Hagan (born 19 March 1822 at Newry, County Down; died 10 November 1890 at Howth, County Dublin) was an Irish lawyer and writer. He was also an Irish Nationalist and Younger Irelander, and was a founding member of the first Irish conference ...

(1873–1930), Irish priest who served as Rector of the Pontifical Irish College in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

from 1919 to 1930 was born in Ballykillageer near the town * Chris Pontius (b. 1974), American stunt performer and cast member of reality stunt show Jackass lived in the town from 2004–2008 *

Donald Pratt Donald Montague McVeagh Pratt (born 9 July 1935) is an Irish businessman and former first-class cricketer. Born at Dublin, Pratt was educated in the city at Sandford Park School and St Columba's College. He later studied at Trinity College Dub ...

(b. 1935), Irish businessman and former first-class cricketer purchased Avoca Handweavers in 1974 * Günther Schütz (1912–1991), German citizen who worked for German Intelligence (

Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' ( German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the '' Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. ...

) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

retired in Avoca *

Emily Wynne Emily Wynne (1872 – 12 June 1958) was an Irish textile artist at Avoca Handweavers, Avoca Woollen Mills and author. Early life and family Emily Adelaide Wynne was born in Germany in 1872. Her parents were Albert Augustus Wynne, a civil and mi ...

(1872–1958), Irish author and textile artist worked at Avoca Woollen Mills

References

Notes *Timothy Alborn, ''An Irish El Dorado: Recovering Gold in County Wicklow'', Journal of British Studies, Vol. 50, No. 2 (April 2011), pp. 359–380. Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The North American Conference on British Studies. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/658187
PDF.
*Bodkin T. (1920) ''Four Irish Landscape Painters: George Barret R.A.'', Irish Academic Press, 2nd ed. 1987.

External links

Avoca Cemetery HeadstonesMining, Metal Resources and Exploration in the Republic of Ireland
in German, English summary {{Authority control Towns and villages in County Wicklow