Wicklow Mountains

The Wicklow mountains lie just 15 miles south of Dublin making it a day trip destination for Ireland's capital city.  The Wicklows offer something for everyone; hiking, archeology, horseback riding, and manor houses with sumptuous gardens to explore...

Glendalough In Wicklow Mnt. Nat. Park

The Wicklow mountains near Dubin have played a significant role in Irish history and have been considered remote until quite recently.   The hills and valleys of County Wicklow provided a handy hiding place for Irish rebels opposing English rule until the English built a military road in 1800 to access the mountains and flush out the Irish resistance.  Today this road is the R-115 that takes you through the Wicklow Mountains, over Sally Gap and drops you into the lush Glendalough Valley at the south end of the mountains.   This area is very popular with Dublin daytrippers, there is a lot to see and do in the area including hiking in the Wicklow Mountains National Park. 
County Wicklow is known as "Garden Country," and there are many elegant country estates here.  While we decided to skip touring the elaborate manor houses and formal gardens in the Wicklow area this trip, there are many worth seeing. The top of the list is  Powerscourt; Irelands most beautiful garden covering 47 acres of a 700-acre estate, Avondale House with it's it's original furniture and 500-acre estate that has fabulous walking trails,  and the Guinness Estate Luggala (hey, it's up for sale if you have €28 million laying around collecting dust).  

*AVONDALE was closed for restorations in August 2018, click the link to their website for updates!

Model Of Monastic Glendalough

Visitor Centre Display

We spent the night in Glendalough staying at HI Hostel so we could have an early morning of exploring the ruins of one of Ireland's most extensive early Celtic Christian monastic settlements.  After breakfast at the hostel, we went back to the Glendalough site to check out the visitor centre.  The Glendalough Visitor Centre  9:30-6pm daily has plenty of parking (€4) and costs €5 entrance fee unless you have your OPW Heritage Card.  There are many displays at the center including a model of what the monastic city looked like, a display on Ireland's unique round towers, historical artifacts from the Glendalough site and a 20-minute film on Christian monasteries in Ireland.  You can also take the 45-minute Glendalough guided tour offered once a day, check for tour times on the Visitor Center website.

Walking The Labyrinth Of Glendalough

After exploring the Visitor Center and the ruins of the ancient monastery at Glendalough we decided to take a walk to the lakes.  Glendalough means "valley of the two lakes" in Irish, and there are two beautiful lakes nestled between the mountain valleys within an easy walk of the Visitor Centre.  

Walking the trails of Glendalough

Walking in Wicklow Mountains National Park is a big tourist attraction.  The park is free for all to enter and you can download a walking guide to many of Glendalough's walking trails HERE.  Most of the walks are 1-3 km, but some more robust rambles are 9-11 km in length; a good day hike for most.
Many of the people that stayed in our hostel in Glendalough were walking the WICKLOW WAY a 131 km system of trails that begin in the Dublin suburb of Rathfarnham and end in the village of Clonegal in County Carlow at the southern end of the Wicklow Mountains.  It usually takes about 7-10 days for most folks to complete The Wicklow Way, and the scenery is stunning.

There is also a 30km walk called ST. KEVIN'S WAY that is a modern pilgrim route that follows the path St. Kevin took from Hollywood over the Wicklow Mountains to Glendalough.
We decided to ramble a bit and walked the GREEN ROAD WALK to Glendalough Upper Lake, a leisurely 1 hour 3km stroll.  Part of the Green Road Walk is through grassy wetlands, and the trail follows a beautiful boardwalk that eventually leads you through lush Oak forests to the Upper Lake.  There are more ruins of the ancient monastic settlement of Glendalough set in a grassy field near the shores of Upper Lake, including a high cross and ruins of a stone church.   This was such a picturesque spot to rest, dip your feet in the lake and perhaps have a picnic.   

 Upper Lake Glendalough, Wicklow Mountains

The Wicklow Gap

My Precious Gin

Wicklow Gold

The sun was climbing high in the sky, and we couldn't linger in this enchanting valley any longer.  We decided to follow the path of St. Kevin west towards Hollywood by driving over the famous Wicklow Gap.  The term "gap" is actually a mountain pass, and once at the top of the Wicklow Gap, you can see down into the Glendalough Valley below.  The Wicklow Mountains are covered in juniper bushes, heather and other fragrant botanicals; as are most of the mountains in Southern Ireland, which is why there is a lot of gin being produced in Ireland today.   My absolute favourite gin is made in the Wicklow Mountains by Glendalough Distillery.  Their gin is made in small batches (less than 250 litres) with hand-picked plants and botanicals foraged from the mountains around Glendalough.  In fact, Glendalough Distillery is the only distillery in Ireland that has a full-time forager on staff year round.  I purchased a bottle of their "Wild Botanical" gin. It was truly an exceptional gin and tasted like the clean herbal taste of mountain meadows with a hint of sweet floral!  Glendalough makes four season varietal gins and also a "ginteresting" series with such exciting gins such as seaweed, beech leaf and mountain heather & wild blackberry gin-YUM!  So many choices...

Wicklow Gap

I like to always bring home one bottle of local alcohol as a souvenir from my travels, so I brought home a bottle of the "Wild Botanical" gin. My only regret is that I didn't get more!  Just sniffing the bottle of gin is like mentally rolling around in the wild heather & juniper plants of the Wicklow Mountains!  
The Wicklow Mountains and it's National Park are a playground for all ages to enjoy, whether you are touring gardens or walking the trails as the pilgrims of ancient Ireland did.  With so much to see and do in the Wicklows, you could easily spend a week or more just in this region of Ireland alone.

"DUL GO MALL" which is Irish for Go Slowly 🐌 

Do you like to hike, walk or "ramble" when you go travelling?  If so, what has your favourite walk been?  Tell me in the comments below...

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Glendalough-Ireland's Mystic Monastery

45 miles south of Ireland's bustling capital city of Dublin, lies a remote-feeling, ancient monastic settlement.  Nestled in a wooded valley of the Wicklow Mountains, the round tower of Glendalough rises up as a beacon for the pilgrims of long ago and the tourists of today...

I awoke to the sounds of drops of water falling off a roof onto gravel and the soft cooing of a dove.  As my eyes adjusted to the light in the room, I felt the odd sensation of not remembering where I was.  Looking around at my surroundings I was surprised to find I was in a dormitory room, and then my whereabouts all came flooding into my memory at once...I was in a hostel in Ireland!

The TWO-LANE Road To Glendalough

My family, my good from Norway and I were in Glendalough (pronounced GLEN-da-lock), an early Christian ecclesiastical city deep in the Wicklow mountains south of Dublin.  Glendalough means "Valley of the two lakes" in Irish and the monastic settlement is next to two lakes that are all part of Wicklow Mountains National Park.  We were staying at the Glendalough HI International Hostel a short stroll from the monastery ruins, an excellent choice for a cheap sleep.   Since we arrived at 10:00 pm the night before, we didn't need fancy accommodations; just free parking and a place to lay our heads.  
It seemed like we were all still on North American time and we were up before 7 am; all except for our teenager Liam.  We dressed and snuck through the quiet halls down to the breakfast room for a coffee, but it didn't open until 8am.  Instead, we walked down the quiet country road towards the great round tower of Glendalough that we could see poking out from the tops of the trees.  Check out my blog post on How To Have Glendalough All To Yourself.

There is a state-of-the-art visitor centre at Glendalough, but it didn't open until 9:30, so we thought we would explore the site since it is free and always open.

Entrance To Glendalough

Following the narrow road from the hostel past peaceful sheep pastures to the Glendalough Hotel, we came to a set of ancient granite stone arches.  Entering that archway a path led us along to the gateway that signifies we were now on the hallowed grounds of the ancient inner monastery.   Glendalough was founded by St Kevin (498-618-yup, 120 years; old as dirt) in the 6th century.  There was already a small hermitage here built overtop a Pagan sacred site when St. Kevin crossed the Wicklow Mountains and arrived in Glendalough.  Within just over 100 years the settlement grew into a city of over 1,000 people and became one of the most important monastic sights in Ireland.  Stepping through the archway of Glendalough that misty morning was crossing a threshold into another time and I found the hairs on my neck stood up as I walked under the arches.  In the days of the monastery, crossing the threshold of Glendalough meant that you had asylum from authorities for 90 days; unless you converted and became a monk.  If not, you were tossed out to the wolves on day 91.  No wonder it became such a huge settlement!

Round Tower of Glendalough

Once inside the stone walls,  we were drawn over to the 30 meter (110 foot) round tower that stands like a sentinel guarding the sea of high crosses and tombstones as it had for almost 1,000 years.  The tower was reconstructed in 1876 from its original slate stones after being destroyed by a lightning strike.  There are about 65 round towers scattered around Ireland, and they served primarily as a bell towers in Celtic churches as their Irish name translates: "cloigthithe" or bell house.  The doors to the round towers are always elevated therefore giving the round base of the tower more strength.  

The modern visitor centre at Glendalough has an excellent display on round towers and early Irish Celtic monastic life.  The visitor centre also has an informative 20-minute film on Celtic Christianity in Ireland, a small museum with artifacts from the site, a model of the monastic city and offers once a day 45 minute guided tours.  The entrance fee to the visitor centre is €5, and as of 2018, the parking lots charge €4 (except weekends it is free).  Click for more information on the:  Glendalough Visitor Centre or other OPW run sites.  Don't forget to purchase an Ireland Heritage Card at your first heritage site to save you money on entry to all other places; go to www.heritageireland.ie for more information.

The Ruins of Glendalough Cathedral

Several other buildings make up the inner monastic site, such as the larger Cathedral which is just a stone hull with a floor and walls but no roof.  Just outside this Cathedral is St. Kevins Cross, a 10-foot tall Celtic High Cross carved from a single piece of granite.  Legend has it that if you hug the cross, and can reach your hands around it to clasp your fingers together, your wish of healing will be granted according to one's depth of faith in God.  Below is a photo of St. Kevins Cross (to the right of the round tower).

Downhill towards the small river is more buildings such as the tiny "Priests House" which had also been reconstructed from original stone.  Some scholars have suggested that this building may have housed the relics of St. Kevin at one time (the whereabouts of St. Kevin's remains are unknown).  Further on down the path is the gorgeous little stone church affectionately known as "St. Kevin's Kitchen" because the round bell tower looks like a kitchen chimney pipe.  The upstairs or "croft" of the church was perhaps used as a scriptorium or as part of the early university St. Kevin established here.  There are several other ruins of churches on the Glendaloch site such as St. Kieran's, St Mary's, Saviour Church and Trinity Church.  With seven churches plus a monastic university, you can see why this was the most important Celtic Christian site in all of Ireland.  


Glendalough declined in 1152 when there was a shift in church political power and Glendalough was annexed to the diocese of Dublin.  Yet, Glendalough remained an important site for pilgrims.  In fact, a Pope declared that 7 visits to Glendalough are equivalent to the same indulgence value as one visit to Rome! Even today it can get very busy with pilgrims at Glendalough, especially on June 3 which is St. Kevin's Day.

Exploring Saint Kevin's Kitchen

Speaking of kitchens, our stomachs were starting to grumble and it was time for breakfast back at the hostel.  Besides that, other tourists had begun to arrive at the monastic site, taking away from the mysterious vibe that morning.  Back at the hostel, we found our son Liam in the common area along with a group of other young people huddled near the router with phones in hand, connecting to the wifi.  During the self-serve continental breakfast we had in the dining hall, Liam declared that he liked the hostel and thought he may give backpacking a try after high school.  My heart secretly swelled with joy at this thought, and I mentally gave myself a high-five for instilling the value of travel in my child.  
Sure, I told Liam.  I may even come backpacking with you!

Did you go backpacking as a youth (or as an empty-nester)?  I would love to hear about your experience in the comments below.

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Crash Landing in Ireland!

Our slow travel holiday to Ireland got off to a rocky start with last-minute flight cancellations, missing reservations, long layovers and delays.  Luckily for us, Ireland with its gentle beauty and kind people quickly erased the memory of our misadventures and healed our frazzled nerves...

Boarding Our Flight To Dublin

We arrived in Ireland mentally battered and bruised after a horrific travel screw-up kept us awake for 24 hours before our travels even began.  We spent hours on the phone with airline representatives trying to come up with a plan to rectify our situation.  The results of which left us flying a red-eye flight to Dublin through Manchester with a 6-hour layover, rather than Toronto-Dublin directly.  Not only did it cost our family extra money for the plane ticket from Dublin from Manchester, but it also cost us a precious 8 hours of sightseeing where we had planned to explore Ireland's ancient Boyne Valley, North of Dublin.  I was so stressed out and disappointed.  This is the part of travel I struggle with the most; being flexible.  It seems the wisdom of Ireland has much to teach me on how to "go with the flow ".  Ireland was also to teach me how to overcome my travel disappointments because I found the Irish people are the kindest people I have ever come across; always willing to talk to you about your woes and you end up rolling with laughter.  The Irish are so genuine and truly helpful when you are in need of directions, advice.... or even a stiff drink!  

Nissan Scenic; Our Sweet Irish Ride

After picking up our rental car from Dublin airport AVIS (who provided us excellent service above & beyond our expectations this trip!), we headed to Kealys Pub at the airport, where we met with our cousin Wendy for some dinner and a pint of Guinness.  With that first sip of sweet stout beer in its native land, the hearty food and the great conversation our heart rates came back down to normal again, and we could gather our bearings.  Pure magic; that ale is!  After the mini family reunion at the pub, we swooped back to the airport to pick up our friend Jennifer who was flying in from Norway to come along on our Irish road trip with us.

Family Reunion In Ireland Makes It All Better!

Round Tower Of Glendalough

Our destination for the night was Glendalough,  about 45 miles south of the Dublin airport.  We planned to stay as close as we could get to the ancient monastic city, but not spend a lot of money because we were arriving late in the evening and just primarily needed a place to lay our heads for the night.  Our choice was a family room at the HI international hostel in Glendalough.  TIP: If you are a budget traveller, or you are looking for a quick stop to just sleep for the night this place is perfect: €20 per person for a room that had two twin beds, a bunk bed and our own washroom.  Free Wifi and optional breakfast for €5 extra.   www.hihostels.com/hostels/glendalough

Race Against Time To Get Jennifer From The Dublin Airport

Again our pulses were racing because we had an hour and a half from when we picked up Jennifer at the Dublin airport to when the front desk at the Glendalough hostel closed at 10pm!  I knew we would have had a tight timeline to get to our hostel after we picked up Jennifer, so I brought our trusty Garmin GPS (nicknamed Sangeeta) from home in my carry on bag.  I programmed the coordinates for the Glendalough hostel into Sangeeta before our trip, and it said we would arrive in 1 hour, 10 minutes.   No problem we had 20 minutes to spare, right?...and GO 🏁    I am so glad now we brought Sangeeta along with us because the car NAV system was a pain in the ass to figure out and it took us a few days to get it to work properly with all the settings the previous drivers had entered into it.    

Yes, This Is A Two Lane Road!

TIP: Driving in Ireland is hard:   
                 * you are driving on the left side of the street 
                 *you are driving on narrow roads that are often ONE LANE
                 *we happened to be driving a manual transmission (left side) 
                 *Irish drivers drive REALLY fast 
                 *get all the extra insurance you can for hassle-free rental             
Plus, we had a super wide seven-seater SUV because we had 5-6 people and their luggage to transport, not so practical on tiny Irish county roads.   It also didn't help that we were all exhausted from the day of travel.  
The large motorways in Ireland were easy to navigate; wide two-lane roads in each direction with excellent signage.  But as the day turned into dusk, and we entered the Wicklow mountains, 15 miles South of Dublin, the roads became dark and VERY narrow.  Half the time our passenger side mirrors were dragging through the shrubbery lining the sides of the roads and scraping down the sides of the car to let oncoming traffic pass!  We also had to stop and pull in our side mirrors to squeeze past cars and trucks coming in the opposite direction.  I think we also bounced off a few curbs.   Again, get your extra insurance-it's worth it!

The Irish Humour Is The BEST

In the end, we made it to the Glendalough International Hostel with 5 minutes to spare!  We purchased our continental breakfast tickets for €5, so we didn't even have to think about finding food first thing in the morning because the hostel is in the countryside. Once we found our family dorm room with two single beds and a bunk bed; we put on our sheets and all four of us literally crashed into our beds that night with the window wide open to breathe in that fresh Ireland county air.  


I can't remember the last time I had slept so deeply, recharging my spirits for the adventures that lay ahead in Ireland!

Do you have any travel tales of woe?  Tell me about them and how you overcame them in the comments below...

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