Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow

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 Avondale House

Parnell's birthplace, now open again after a full restoration.

Charles Stewart Parnell was born here on 27 June 1846. Coillte refurbished the Georgian house and reopened it in 2023. Walk the rooms, then take the 1.4 km treetop walkway through the forest and up a 38-metre viewing tower above the Avonmore valley.

Walks & trails → 02 Train from Dublin

Rathdrum has been on the railway since 1863.

The station sits on the Dublin Connolly-Rosslare Europort line, unstaffed but served by commuter and intercity trains. Roughly two hours from the city. A useful, car-free approach to south Wicklow.

Getting there → 03 Vale of Avoca gateway

Glendalough is 13 km west. The Meeting of the Waters is 5 km south.

Rathdrum stands on a ridge above the Avonmore River. Glendalough is eleven minutes by car. The Meeting of the Waters - where the Avonmore and Avonbeg join - is a short drive south, the place Thomas Moore made famous in his 1807 poem.

Walks & trails →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

Jacob's Well

Turf fires, proper food, local in the best sense

Gastro pub and B&B, Main Street

Multiple Black & White Pub of the Year winner. Irish Restaurant Association Best Gastro Pub in Wicklow, 2010 and 2011. Noel and Helen run it; the two turf fires in the bar are real. Food is the main event - the pub part follows naturally.

Bates Nua

Evenings, food-led, the newer energy in town

Restaurant and bar, Market Square

Opened under new ownership in May 2023 in a coaching inn building that goes back to 1785. The bar is secondary to a kitchen that leans into steaks, seafood, and homemade pastas. The useful Friday-night answer when Jacob's Well is full.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Bates Nua Restaurant	Restaurant, Market Square	€€	The main food room in town. European cooking - steaks off the char-grill, daily seafood (mussels, prawns, sea bass, cod, plaice), homemade pastas. Opened under new ownership May 2023. Booking advisable on weekends.
Jacob's Well Bar and Restaurant	Gastro pub, Main Street	€€	Award-winning kitchen in the pub setting. The food history here goes back further than any other option in town - two consecutive Irish Restaurant Association wins in 2010 and 2011. The bar and the restaurant are one room; choose a table by the fire in winter.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Jacob's Well	B&B rooms above the pub, Main Street	The B&B sits above and apart from the gastro pub - separate entrance, quiet. Clean rooms, a good breakfast, within walking distance of everything in town.
Stirabout Lane B&B	B&B, 36 Main Street	Winner of the Best Irish Welcome award. En suite rooms, free off-street parking, a guest sitting room with turf fires, and a breakfast menu that goes beyond the full Irish. Ten minutes on foot to the train station - the pick for anyone arriving by rail.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

The landlord who led the tenants

Parnell and Avondale

Charles Stewart Parnell was born at Avondale House on 27 June 1846, the son of an Anglo-Irish Protestant landowner. He became, in the 1880s, the most powerful Irish politician of his generation - leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party at Westminster, president of the Land League, the man who drove Gladstone toward a Home Rule bill. The contradiction at the heart of it - a Wicklow landlord organising the largest campaign of tenant resistance in Irish history - played out, in part, on this estate. 'Captain Moonlight' was the pseudonym used in threatening letters sent to landlords during the Land War; the tactic spread across Wicklow and beyond. Parnell's political career ended in 1891 following a divorce case that split the Irish party. He died that October, aged forty-five. Avondale passed through other hands. Coillte turned it into a forestry demonstration site in the twentieth century and then, after a long restoration, reopened the house and built a treetop walkway through the estate in the 2020s.

From the first hostilities to the last holdout

1798 in South Wicklow

Wicklow men were in the field from the very first day of the 1798 rebellion - 23 May - and they kept fighting longer than almost anyone else, well into the autumn. South Wicklow saw some of the worst loyalist reprisals: on 21 June 1798, yeomanry including men from Rathdrum were involved in a massacre of civilians at Aughrim. The rebel cause in Wicklow was led by figures from a small number of Catholic families with enough property to hold their standing - the Byrnes of Ballymanus, from whom the leader Billy Byrne came, were the most prominent. The mountains gave the rebels cover and supply lines that Crown forces struggled to cut. The memory of 1798 sits beneath the surface of south Wicklow in a way that is still legible, two hundred and twenty-eight years later, if you look.

The ringfort on the ridge

Ráth Droma

The name means 'ringfort of the ridge' and it describes the strategic reality: Rathdrum stands on high ground above the Avonmore valley, the natural control point for river crossings and the mountain passes above the Vale of Avoca. The O'Byrne clan held this ground until the late sixteenth century, when English forces pushed them out. The land went to an English grantee. The market town grew on the ridge through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The railway arrived in 1863, connecting the town to Dublin Connolly and, eventually, to Rosslare Europort. The ridge is still the spine of everything.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

Beyond the Trees Avondale - Treetop Walk The walkway winds through the canopy of the Avondale forest and rises to a 38-metre viewing tower with 360-degree views of the Wicklow Mountains, the Vale of Avoca, and the Avonmore River below. Fully accessible. A 90-metre spiral slide brings you back down from the tower (optional). Entry ticketed - check beyondthetreesavondale.com for current prices and seasonal hours.

1.4 km elevated walkwaydistance

1-1.5 hours with the towertime

Avondale River Trail A marked trail through the Avondale Forest Park following the banks of the Avonmore River. Moderate terrain. The best walk in the park for seeing the estate at ground level - old specimen trees, the river, the valley floor. No separate ticket required for the forest trails.

5.2 km loopdistance

2.5 hourstime

Avondale Tree Trail The shorter signed trail through the park, following the exotic and rare trees planted by the forestry school that operated at Avondale through the twentieth century. Good for families; mostly flat.

2 kmdistance

1 hourtime

Rathdrum to Meeting of the Waters The Avonmore flows south from Rathdrum to the spot where it meets the Avonbeg - the Meeting of the Waters - near the village of Avoca. Thomas Moore's 1807 poem made the confluence famous; it is quieter and less visited than Glendalough, which makes it a better walk on a summer weekend.

Approximately 5 km one waydistance

1.5 hours one waytime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The forest at Avondale comes into itself in April and May. Crowds are thin, the treetop walk is at its best with fresh growth, and Glendalough is still manageable before the summer coaches arrive.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Avondale and Glendalough both pull numbers in July and August. The town square is quiet by comparison. Book accommodation ahead; the region fills from Dublin on summer weekends.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The best season. Avondale forest turns colour through October, the tourist traffic eases, and the walks along the Avonmore are mostly yours. Hotels and B&Bs ease on price after the August peak.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The treetop walk stays open, but the valley can be raw and wet. The town is quiet in a way that is either peaceful or bleak depending on your expectations. Avondale House guided tours still run - check beyondthetreesavondale.com for winter hours before driving down.

◐ Mind yourself

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.

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Treating Rathdrum as a car park for Glendalough

Avondale alone - the house, the treetop walk, the river trails - is two to three hours. Do not sleep in Rathdrum and spend all day at Glendalough without setting aside a morning for the estate on your doorstep.

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The treetop walk admission without checking the house tour separately

The treetop walk and the Avondale House guided tours are separate ticketed experiences. The house tour is the Parnell history; the treetop walk is the forest spectacle. They run on different schedules. Check beyondthetreesavondale.com before you arrive.

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Expecting a restaurant scene

Rathdrum has two good options - Bates Nua and Jacob's Well - and not much else. If you want variety, drive to Wicklow town (25 minutes east) or Arklow (20 minutes south). The town is honest about what it is.

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Getting there.

By car

Dublin city centre to Rathdrum is approximately 65 km - allow 1 hour 15 minutes via the N11/M11 south, then west on the R752. From Glendalough the drive is 13 km east, around eleven minutes.

By bus

Bus Éireann route 133 connects Rathdrum with Arklow and Wicklow town. For Dublin connections, the train is faster and more practical.

By train

Rathdrum station is on the Dublin Connolly-Rosslare Europort line, opened 1863. Roughly a dozen weekday services in each direction. Dublin Connolly to Rathdrum takes approximately 1 hour 40 minutes. The station is unstaffed; buy tickets online or at Connolly before boarding. Stirabout Lane B&B will pick up from the station on request.

Rathdrum, Ráth Droma, Co. Wicklow

The man who came closest to winning Irish Home Rule was born 1.5 km from the town square.