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LARAGH

CO. WICKLOW · IE

Laragh
An Láithreach, Co. Wicklow

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 04 / 06

An Láithreach · Co. Wicklow

The crossroads village where the Military Road ends and the mountain pubs begin - a kilometre and a half from the round tower.

Laragh is where the village is. This distinction matters more than it sounds. When people say they are going to Glendalough, they mean the monastic site - the round tower, the two lakes, the seven ruined churches that Saint Kevin founded in the 6th century. But Glendalough itself has a visitor centre, a hotel, a car park, and the dead. Laragh, a kilometre and a half east at the junction of three mountain roads, is where the pubs and the beds are. If you want a pint after the Spinc, you walk back to Laragh to get it.

The village is genuinely small - a couple of hundred people at most - and most of what is here is oriented toward people who have just come off a mountain. Lynhams has been a pub since the 1770s, which means it predates the Military Road that made Laragh a strategic crossroads in the first place. The Wicklow Heather is where you go for a serious dinner, and its Writers' Room - a collection of first editions of Joyce, Yeats, Beckett, and Wilde that the owners actually assembled - is the kind of thing you find because someone mentioned it, not because there is a sign outside. There is not much else, and that is the right amount.

The Military Road runs north from here through the Sally Gap toward Dublin; south it dissolves into the deep valley of Glenmalure. Michael Dwyer used these mountains as cover for five years after the 1798 rebellion, and the British built the road specifically to flush him out. It took until 1803. The road is one of the most dramatic drives in Ireland and most people have no idea what they are driving on. Base yourself here for a night, walk to Glendalough at seven in the morning before the coaches arrive, come back for a plate of Wicklow lamb at the Wicklow Heather, and you will understand the arrangement.

Population

Around 200 (the actual village; Glendalough monastic site is 1.5km west)

Pubs

2and counting

Walk score

Wicklow Way passes through; Glendalough 20 min walk west

Coords

52.9994° N, 6.3206° W

01 / 09

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The crossroads

Three mountain roads meet here.

The R115 (the Military Road, running south from the Sally Gap), the R755 (north to Roundwood, south to Rathdrum), and the R756 (west into Glendalough) all converge at this junction. The British built a barracks here for exactly this reason. The pub that replaced it serves the same function.

Stories & lore → 02 Gateway to Glendalough

The monastic city is west. The pint is here.

Glendalough - the 6th-century monastic site with the round tower, two lakes, and seven ruined churches - is 1.5km up the R756. Laragh is where you sleep, eat, and end the evening. This is not a criticism of either place; it is the arrangement.

Pubs → 03 The Wicklow Way

The Republic's first waymarked long-distance trail runs through the village.

The 131km Wicklow Way passes through Laragh on its route between Clonegal in the south and Marlay Park in Dublin. The stage south from here over Mullacor (657m) to Glenmalure is one of the best single days on the whole route.

Walks & outings →

02 / 09

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Lynhams of Laragh

Local, turf fire, walkers welcome

Traditional pub & hotel bar

A pub on this site since the 1770s - the original public bar predates the Military Road that put Laragh on the map. Turf fire, timber, a bar that fills when the last walkers come down off the hills. The kind of pub that does not need to explain itself. If you are staying in the village, this is your sitting room. Food served.

The Wicklow Heather

Evenings, sit-down, the Writers' Room

Restaurant with bar

More restaurant than pub, but there is a bar at the front worth a pint of stout while you wait for a table - and the table is worth waiting for. The Writers' Room beside it holds first editions of Ulysses, Dracula, Waiting for Godot, and Yeats, plus an original programme from the first night of The Importance of Being Earnest. Not a replica collection. Book ahead at weekends.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
The Wicklow Heather	Restaurant	€€€	The serious dinner in Laragh, on the Glendalough Road. Wicklow lamb, Irish beef, game in season. The Writers' Room dining area is walled with first editions of Irish literature - Joyce's Ulysses, a signed first edition of Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1954), Bram Stoker's Dracula, and a volume of Yeats inscribed in his hand. Book ahead on summer weekends. There is no fallback of equivalent quality in the village.
Lynhams of Laragh	Pub restaurant	€€	Bar food and proper dinners in the pub below the hotel rooms. The plate you want after a long day on the Spinc or the Wicklow Way. Open late by local standards. No ceremony, no surprises, exactly what it is supposed to be.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Lynhams Hotel	Hotel & pub	Rooms above the pub in the centre of the village. Plain, comfortable, family-run since the 1770s in various forms. You are upstairs from a turf fire. The Glendalough Hotel is 1.5km west if you want to be beside the round tower; Lynhams is where the pub is.
B&Bs and self-catering in Laragh	B&B / self-catering	Several small B&Bs and self-catering properties in and around the village. Cheaper than either hotel option, often with a better breakfast. Worth searching directly - the smaller places are underrepresented on the large booking platforms.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Built between 1800 and 1809 to flush a rebel out of the mountains

The Military Road

After the failed United Irish Rebellion of 1798, a guerrilla captain named Michael Dwyer withdrew into the Wicklow Mountains with a small band of men and sustained a campaign against Crown forces for five years. The mountains were his advantage: there was no road through them from north to south, and Dwyer and his men knew every path. The British response was to build one. Construction of the Military Road - running from Rathfarnham in south Dublin through Glencree, the Sally Gap, and Laragh to Aghavannagh - began on 12 August 1800 and was completed by 1809. Four barracks were placed along the route, one at Laragh. The road is still the R115 today, one of the most dramatic drives in Ireland. Dwyer surrendered in December 1803, before the road was finished.

Five years in the mountains, and the valley that sheltered him

Michael Dwyer and Glenmalure

Michael Dwyer (1772-1825) was the last significant commander of the 1798 United Irish Rising still in the field after the rebellion was crushed. He used the Wicklow Mountains - and Glenmalure in particular, the deep glacial valley running west from Laragh - as his base for five years of guerrilla resistance. Glenmalure had sheltered rebels before: in the 16th century, the O'Byrne clan used it as the last Gaelic stronghold in Leinster. The British expenditure to catch Dwyer ran to hundreds of thousands of pounds. He eventually accepted surrender terms in December 1803 and was transported to New South Wales rather than hanged, where he later became High Constable of Sydney.

'An Láithreach' - the site, or ruins, of a building

The Irish name

The Irish name for Laragh is An Láithreach, meaning 'the site' or 'the ruins of a building' - an unusually frank placename for a village that now exists primarily to serve a more famous neighbour. The name predates Glendalough's visitor economy by several centuries. Whether the ruins in question were something monastic, something military, or simply something that fell down a long time ago is not recorded.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Walk to Glendalough (the monastic site) The most obvious walk from Laragh: west on the R756 to the Glendalough visitor centre and the round tower. Flat road walk, and the reward is arriving on foot rather than from a car park. Do it early - the coaches arrive at half ten. The main valley walks (the Spinc, the Green Road, Poulanass Waterfall) are covered in full on the Glendalough page.

1.5km one waydistance

20 mintime

Wicklow Way: Laragh south to Glenmalure South from Laragh on the Wicklow Way, over Mullacor (657m) and down into the Glenmalure valley. Open mountain, no road, no phone signal above the tree line. The Glenmalure Lodge at the far end is a family-run pub and B&B well accustomed to receiving walkers in various states of satisfaction. Book ahead - it fills with Wicklow Way walkers. Return requires a pre-arranged car shuttle; there is no loop.

13km one waydistance

4-5 hourstime

Military Road north to Sally Gap Not a walking route but worth treating as a journey. The R115 north from Laragh climbs through open blanket bog to the Sally Gap - a crossroads at 470m with views over the Wicklow Mountains on all sides and Dublin Bay visible on a clear day. The road was built to move soldiers; it is now one of the most scenic drives in Ireland. The bog colour changes with every season.

18km to Sally Gap junctiondistance

30 min by car; half a day by biketime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Bluebells and wood anemone come up in the oak woods around Glendalough in late April. The Military Road moorland turns green quickly in March. Coach traffic to Glendalough is manageable before the school holidays. Walk to the monastic site at dawn and you have it to yourself.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Glendalough car parks fill by ten. Laragh itself stays manageable - small enough that the overflow from the valley does not swamp it. Come for the pub and dinner even if you go to the valley early or late. The Wicklow Heather books up at weekends; plan ahead.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The oaks in the valley turn in October, the deer rut on the slopes above, and the coaches fall off sharply when schools go back. The best time to walk the Wicklow Way stage to Glenmalure. Lynhams fills with walkers on autumn weekends; book the room.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The Military Road and Sally Gap can close in hard frost or snow - check before driving north. Below that, the valley is quiet and honest: the round tower in mist, the graveyard without anyone in it, the pub genuinely warm. The Wicklow Heather keeps dinner hours through winter.

◉ Go

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Sleeping in Glendalough if you want a pub

The Glendalough Hotel is the only accommodation in the valley itself, and its bar closes when the hotel decides. The village - the pubs, the dinner, the morning after - is in Laragh. If you are here to walk and eat and drink, base yourself here.

A day trip that skips the night

The valley needs time. A day trip gives you the round tower and a queue for the toilet. A night in Laragh gives you the valley at dawn before the coaches arrive, the Spinc in the afternoon, and the Wicklow Heather in the evening. The ratio is not comparable.

Leaving south on the R755 without considering the R115 north

Most people leave Laragh the way they came - back down toward Rathdrum or Roundwood. The R115 north over the Sally Gap is a completely different road through completely different landscape. Thirty minutes longer and worth every minute of it, in either direction.

Getting there.

By car

Dublin to Laragh is 1h 15m via the M11 and R755 through Rathdrum, or 1h 30m over the Sally Gap on the R115 from south Dublin. Take the M11 in and the Sally Gap out, or vice versa - the routes are entirely different landscapes. From Wicklow town, 30 minutes via Rathdrum on the R752 and R755.

By bus

St Kevin's Bus Service runs from St Stephen's Green North in Dublin, stopping at Bray, Roundwood, and Laragh before terminating at Glendalough. Operates daily all year except Christmas Day, with seasonal timetabling - two departures on weekdays in summer. It is the only public transport to the valley. Check glendaloughbus.com the evening before.

By train

No train to Laragh. The nearest station is Rathdrum (15km south, on the Dublin-Rosslare line, about 1hr from Dublin Connolly). A taxi from Rathdrum to Laragh is the practical connection.