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From Dublin: Wicklow, Glendalough, Waterfall & Sheepdog demo
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From €50 per person
A solid day out into County Wicklow - known as the Garden of Ireland - that covers three very different but equally rewarding stops. You’ll start at Powerscourt Waterfall, Ireland’s tallest waterfall at 121 metres, then spend two hours at the 6th-century monastic ruins of Glendalough, set between two lakes in a wooded valley. The last stop is a working sheep farm where a local farmer gives a live sheepdog demonstration, showing you how the dogs are trained and how they work with both voice and whistle commands. The tour departs Dublin at 9:30am and gets you back by around 4:45pm.
Meeting point: Molly Malone Statue, Suffolk Street. Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the 9:30am departure. Ending time may vary with traffic conditions.
Powerscourt Waterfall drops 121 metres into a tree-lined valley - give it a proper walk. You have up to an hour here, and it’s worth using. The path circles around below the falls and through the estate grounds. Wear something waterproof at the base in wet weather; the spray carries further than you’d expect. The waterfall is on the Powerscourt Estate, whose formal gardens are a five-minute drive away in Enniskerry - National Geographic ranked them third in the world, behind Versailles and Kew. The gardens themselves aren’t on this tour’s itinerary, but if you’re coming back for a slower Wicklow day, Enniskerry is the base: Poppies café on the village square has been open since 1982 and does proper soup and sandwiches.
The sheepdog demonstration is a full stop, not a photo opportunity. The farmer walks you through the breeds used on the farm, how each dog is trained from pup to working dog, and then runs a live demonstration moving the sheep with voice and whistle commands. It’s 45 minutes and the commands are what make it - the dogs respond to a whistle pattern specific to each instruction. If you’re travelling with children, this is the stop that holds them best.
Glendalough is the heart of this tour and your two hours there are worth using well. The monastic site - a cathedral, round tower, seven churches, and a graveyard still in use - sits between two lakes in a glacial valley. The round tower is the one you’ll recognise from postcards: thirty metres of mica-slate and granite with its doorway three and a half metres off the ground, a detail that isn’t decorative - when the Vikings came up the valley looking for monastery silver, the monks pulled the ladder up after them.
The two hours split naturally: spend the first walking the monastic ruins and the Green Road from the Lower Lake toward the Upper Lake - flat, accessible, and passes nine of the major ruins. Save the second half for lunch. The visitor centre café feeds the bus crowd; walk the extra few minutes to Trinity Mountain Bothy in Laragh village for soup, sandwiches, and better coffee.
If you can get to Glendalough itself outside the tour’s main slot - the site opens early and stays open - the hour around dusk when the coaches have gone is genuinely different. The deer come out of the woods along the Upper Lake path and the valley finds its own voice.
The Poulanass Waterfall is a short detour from the Upper Lake car park - a 30-metre cascade through mossed-up oak wood - but check with your guide whether there’s time. The tour’s two hours at Glendalough are full, and the waterfall walk adds 40 minutes.