PERHAPS IT is because the Wicklow Mountains are the largest unbroken block of high ground in Ireland, 50km long and 40km wide, almost the same area as Mont Blanc, that so many air crashes have taken place here.
The mountains present a formidable challenge to small aircraft attempting to get to the midlands from the Irish Sea and testimony to this can be found on the sides of Lugnaquilla and other peaks.
A German bomber crashed on the north face of Lugnaquilla during the second World War and the wreckage of a small aircraft lies on the southern flank. In the 1950s a passenger aircraft crashlanded there without fatalities.
Though less than 2,000ft high, the mountain is imposing. It is farmed extensively on the western side overlooking the main Dublin/Blessington road.
Most walkers scale the mountain from the road linking Donard village and Hollywood. The terrain on the eastern side is extremely rough and in recent years has been planted with forestry, making access to the area very difficult.
Church Mountain was mined extensively in prehistoric times for its large copper and iron ore deposits and the old mines are still visible on the western side. The ore causes compass readings to become inaccurate and local people claim this may have been responsible for some of the aircraft crashes in the past.
Church Mountain stands at 544 metres (1,795ft) on the western flank of the Wicklow Mountains between Donard and Hollywood. Beloved by hillwalkers, it has two Irish names, Sliabh na Chodaigh, (the mountain of the covenant) but is better known as Sliabh Gadoe. It is topped by an imposing prehistoric cairn.
The wet weather over the summer has made the land very wet and practically impassable. On Saturday morning the weather was poor and there were few mountain walkers about, which meant that no one spotted the crash.
The area is steeped in history and it is known that Palladius, St Patrick's less-successful predecessor in bringing Christianity to Ireland, came to west Wicklow around 431 and established a church there, his second, at a place called "Domnacha Arda" and it is speculated that this is either nearby Donard or Church mountain itself which has the ruins of a small church on the summit.
Until the early 1800s it was a place of annual pilgrimage where the people of Wicklow and Kildare came on Lammas Day, to do penance and climb the mountain on their knees.