The historian Liam Price recorded that the mountain was known locally as Tomaneena;[3] Turlough Hill is the name given to it by the ESB when they surveyed the site for the pumped-storage scheme.

[1] The summit is located to the south-west of the upper reservoir and is easily reached via the tarmac access road that begins at the top of the Wicklow Gap.

[6] The underlying geology of the mountain is granite, covered with blanket bog, which is a habitat for heather, purple moor grass and sphagnum moss.

[8] To the north-east of the summit, at the head of Glendasan valley, is Lough Nahanagan (Irish: Loch na hOnchon, meaning 'Lake of the Water Monster'),[9] a corrie lake carved by a glacier at the end of the last ice age.

There is a geological feature known as a Turlough; it is defined as "(in Ireland) a low-lying area on limestone which becomes flooded in wet weather through the welling up of groundwater from the rock.