South of Dublin lays the town of Glendalough where you can find the Wicklow Mountains National Park. If you have the time I definitely recommend that you visit this beautiful park. Either to walk through the hills and mountains or just to enjoy the lakes and the flora and fauna surrounding it. If you don't like both, there are lots of other options like climbing, fishing or water sports etc.

Wicklow Mountains NP is established in 1991 and has a surface of around 220 square kilometers. The site has a rich mining history which led to the rise of some villages. Nowadays only the ruins of these villages are left and you are free to explore them. Among them are some older ones as well, like a medieval monastery from the 6th century which is founded by St. Kevin.

From Dublin, it's easy to reach the Park. We used the St. Kevin’s bus which departs from St. Stephen’s Green Park. This bus takes you to the visitor center in just 20 minutes. A return ticket is around € 20,-. This bus does not leave very often and you have two chances per day. From Dublin at 11:30 and 18:00 and from Glendalough at 07:15 and 16:30. So make sure you're on time.

Location of the Wicklow Mountains National Park. Source: Google Maps

After we arrived we went to the visitor center. Here you can gather some information about the park. Maps are provided and there are multiple hikes you can do, varying from short half an hour walks to longer ones from around four hours. We decided to walk to the end of the Glenealo Valley so that you will pass both the Upper and Lower Lake. Apparently some of the highlights in this park. Since we were not up for the entire loop, we had to walk back at some point. All together I think we walked around 12-14 kilometers that day.

Our hike. Source: Google Maps

It was a mopish day which actually matched perfectly with the vibe of this Irish National Park. After crossing a stream near the visitors center, we walked a bit to the point where our path crossed another path which went to the town of Glendalough. Here you will find a graveyard and some ruins like St. Kieran's Church, St. Kevin's Church, the Priest House, Glendalough Monistic site and the Glendalough Roundtower.

River near the visitors center

Glendalough cemetery

After checking out the ruins, we got back on our original path again and continued. After a short while, another path crossed our way again which is the one you can follow if you want to do the entire loop. We followed it a bit in the hope of getting a nice view of the lakes from a higher point. But after walking for some time we still had no outlook on a treeless view and since it was also quite cloudy, we decided to turn back.

Back on our hiking trail, we came to an intersection again where we took the direction where it changed from paved to some sort of wooden boardwalk. This path goes around the lake via the right site and pretty soon we walked alongside Lowe Lake all by ourselves. Most people chose the paved path which goes around the left side.

View on Glendalough and Lower Lake

After passing Lower Lake, we arrived at Upper Lake which is even more majestic. From the point where you arrive, you will have a sweet view over the lake with mountains rising on both sides. Just this view is worth the trip already! We took some photos and just enjoyed the view for a while. Then continued our hike via the right side of the lake.

View of Upper Lake

We did not see a lot of other people. It was a bit crowded at the visitors center, but after leaving that place everyone seemed to have his own destination. Most of them also had kids and probably chose the shorter hikes. Upper Lake was definitely way bigger than Lower Lake. After approximately 1 and a half kilometer we were passed it and the lake became a stream again. Now we were entering the mining area. There were ruins everywhere in the form of houses, stone walls and even a mechanical crusher which was used for separating the lead and the quartz. On both sides of the valley, there were signs of mining everywhere you looked. Like if landslides happened here recently. People mostly mined copper and lead in this area.

View from the Glenealo Valley to Upper Lake

Another one slightly further into the valley

End of our hike with the waterfall

We made it almost to the end of the valley where can admire a waterfall. We even crossed paths with some sort of deer on our way there. We had seen them before, but mostly quite far away. This one crossed the walking trail just in front of us. How sweet!

Slightly better view of Upper Lake on our way back

We walked the same path back to the visitors center, crossing both lakes again. This time the air was a bit less hazy and we shot some photos again at Upper Lake. We could now see the valley and even the waterfall at the end of the lake. Back at the visitors center, a lot of the same people we came with reappeared again. Apparently for the same bus back to Dublin...

Other side of the stream near the visitors center

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