Glendalough was highly recommended by Dubliners as an excellent destination and a base for a 2-3-day-long vacation away from Dublin. While we decided not to make a single base for our trip, but rather to travel to a new town every day, we visited Glendalough on our way from Powerscourt to Kilkenny.
The roads around Glendalough, and mostly everywhere else in Ireland, are very narrow and winding. A trip by car takes longer than what might be expected from the distances on the map. The roads, which are bounded by stone walls on both sides, wind through the hills, sometimes allowing a glimpse of the picturesque Irish countryside.
The visitors centre at Glendalough provides maps of the hiking trails and an overview of the history of the area. The main tourist attractions are the two lakes (the name “Glendalough” means “the glen of two lakes”) and the ruins of a monastery that was founded by St. Kevin in 498. According to a legend, St. Kevin lived to the age of 120. Some also say that he moved to Glendalough to escape the company of his followers. Apparently, that was unsuccessful, as Glendalough later became a major site of pilgrimage in Ireland.
The round tower that was built around 1,000 years ago by the monks of St. Kevin’s monastery is one of most famous landmarks in County Wicklow. The round towers of this type can be seen throughout Ireland. They were used by the monks during a time of war as a defense against the invading forces. Inside, wooden ladders were used to access the top floors, where the monks could escape along with their precious books.
The sun was setting quickly behind the mountain ridges, and the ruins of the monastery quickly became too dark to photograph. However, we did manage to take a few shots of the round tower and the surroundings.
After a late lunch at a local restaurant alongside a large family that had just returned from a day of hiking and was loudly consuming large quantities of sugar-loaded soft drinks, we drove towards Kilkenny.
We stopped at several viewpoints along the Braveheart Drive to photograph spectacular mountain ranges illuminated by the golden sunlight. The route takes its name from the movie “Braveheart”. Many scenes from this movie about Scottish struggle for freedom were shot here, in Ireland, and hundreds of soldiers of the Irish Army Reserve acted as extras. Curiously, there is a village called Hollywood along the route, after which, allegedly, California’s Hollywood was named.
There was still snow at high elevation. The snow patches made an attractive contrast with the yellow-orange grass and the brown rocks. There was also an opportunity to capture such staple image of Irish countryside as sheep grazing in the mountain fields. When we stopped the car and opened the doors to approach them, we were greeted by a sound of hundreds of sheep’s “Baa-a-a” echoing through the mountains. There was no other sound – no noise of city streets, no people’s voices, no traffic… That was the first time when I felt that we escaped the business of Dublin and caught a glimpse of rural Ireland.
Please follow the link to see our photographs of Glendalough.
Keywords: Glendalough.