A
Anonymous
Guest
Today I got off work a bit earlier than usual and rather than commuting straight home wandered into the Dublin/Wicklow mountains for an amble.
Near the Hellfire Wood in the Dublin Mountains, where Kilakee Road and Cruagh Road meet, there’s a viewpoint over Dublin City (that's a complicated way of describing it, its a popular spot in the summer/at weekends). About 4.15 today, as it was getting dark, I walked from here towards Glencree. I passed a gate leading into a largely cleared area just in front ofconifer forest. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a white flash and first of all thought of a hare. Then I realised the animal seemed too large to be a hare (and definitely MUCH too large to be a rabbit), and was moving kangaroo style. I’ve seen Kangaroos in Australia, and the movement was definitely very similar. However the white flash on the animals rump seemed much bigger than that on the grey kangaroos I remember. The backside of the animal seemed too broad to be a deer. I stopped, and in the failing light the animal stopped too – it was in some bare, short conifers and I couldn’t make out much detail. It didn’t seem to be kangaroo like in appearance, especially since it seemed to be using its fore limbs for support. However when it moved it definitely jumped kangaroo style. I then realised there were two and moved slowly towards them. However they seemed very timid and skipped away even though I was a good bit away. The last I saw was the white rump flash disappear into dense conifers.
Is there a kangaroo farm in the Dublin/Wicklow mountains? Could it be a fallow deer? Or a hare? (I have a good bit of experience watching wildlife, and neither of the two obvious explanations is entirely satisfying)
Or some kind of strange cryptozoological mystical monster?
Near the Hellfire Wood in the Dublin Mountains, where Kilakee Road and Cruagh Road meet, there’s a viewpoint over Dublin City (that's a complicated way of describing it, its a popular spot in the summer/at weekends). About 4.15 today, as it was getting dark, I walked from here towards Glencree. I passed a gate leading into a largely cleared area just in front ofconifer forest. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a white flash and first of all thought of a hare. Then I realised the animal seemed too large to be a hare (and definitely MUCH too large to be a rabbit), and was moving kangaroo style. I’ve seen Kangaroos in Australia, and the movement was definitely very similar. However the white flash on the animals rump seemed much bigger than that on the grey kangaroos I remember. The backside of the animal seemed too broad to be a deer. I stopped, and in the failing light the animal stopped too – it was in some bare, short conifers and I couldn’t make out much detail. It didn’t seem to be kangaroo like in appearance, especially since it seemed to be using its fore limbs for support. However when it moved it definitely jumped kangaroo style. I then realised there were two and moved slowly towards them. However they seemed very timid and skipped away even though I was a good bit away. The last I saw was the white rump flash disappear into dense conifers.
Is there a kangaroo farm in the Dublin/Wicklow mountains? Could it be a fallow deer? Or a hare? (I have a good bit of experience watching wildlife, and neither of the two obvious explanations is entirely satisfying)
Or some kind of strange cryptozoological mystical monster?