Planning Luke Livingston Macassey (1843–1908), an Irish civil engineer and
barrister, was in 1874 appointed consultant hydraulic engineer by the Belfast and District Water Commissioners. The Commission had been set up in 1840 to ensure the water supply for Belfast, at that time an expanding city. In 1891 Macassey advised the construction of a reservoir in the Mourne Mountains, as a long-term solution. The project required the acquisition of
wayleaves and
water rights.
Private Acts of Parliament were passed, of 1893, 1897 and 1899, on behalf of the Commissioners. The
Silent Valley Reservoir was built between 1923 and 1933 to hold the water from the catchment area enclosed by the wall. The reservoir supplies
Belfast via the
Mourne Conduit/Aquarius pipeline. The main purpose of the Mourne Wall was to isolate the catchment area from cattle and sheep.
Construction , where a
trig point stands upon the summit tower The wall was built from natural
granite stone using traditional
dry stone walling techniques. On average the wall is about high and thick and is estimated to be long. Stonemasons worked from March to mid-October for 18 years to build the wall.
Topography As the wall was built to contain the catchment area of the Mourne, the wall passes over fifteen of the highest mountains in the area (listed clockwise from the
Kilkeel River): •
Slievenaglogh •
Slieve Muck •
Carn Mountain •
Slieve Loughshannagh •
Slieve Meelbeg •
Slieve Meelmore •
Slieve Bearnagh •
Slievenaglogh •
Slieve Corragh •
Slieve Commedagh •
Slieve Donard •
Rocky Mountain •
Slieve Binnian •
Wee Binnian •
Moolieve Management The wall is maintained and owned by
Northern Ireland Water. == Hiking ==