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From Dublin: Glendalough & Wicklow Mountains Morning Tour
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From €33 per person
The morning departure is the smart choice for Glendalough. You get there before the afternoon tour buses, which means quieter paths, better photos, and a far more peaceful experience of a place that really deserves your full attention. This five-hour tour heads straight south from Dublin into County Wicklow, with your guide keeping up the commentary on the landscape, history, and film connections along the way.
County Wicklow earns its nickname - the Garden of Ireland - and you’ll see exactly why within the first hour. The terrain shifts from city to rolling farmland to wild mountain bog quickly, and the route passes through valleys that were used as filming locations for Braveheart and P.S. I Love You. Your guide will point out exactly which hillsides made it to screen.
Glendalough is the heart of the trip. This glacial valley holds two lakes and the ruins of a 6th-century monastic settlement founded by Saint Kevin. The round tower stands almost perfectly intact, Celtic crosses mark the old graveyard, and the path along the lower lake leads to the quieter upper lake surrounded by oak woodland and steep valley sides. You get around 90 minutes of free time here. The return crosses the Sally Gap, one of the highest mountain roads in Wicklow, with sweeping views of blanket bog and distant peaks.
The early morning departure earns its keep at Glendalough. By the time afternoon coaches arrive, you’ll already be walking the valley - the monastic ruins, the round tower with its doorway three and a half metres off the ground, and the flat Green Road between the two lakes are all far better without a crowd. If you have time once the guided section ends, the 3km return path from the visitor centre along the Lower Lake to the Upper Lake is flat, buggy-friendly, and passes the most significant ruins - allow an hour each way.
The tour’s Sally Gap return route is itself one of the great mountain drives in Ireland. The road - the R115, the old Military Road - was built between 1800 and 1809 by the British Army specifically to penetrate the Wicklow mountains after the 1798 rebellion. Watch for the open blanket bog and, on clear days, Dublin Bay in the distance.
If you find yourself with a gap at the end of your free time at Glendalough and the visitor centre café doesn’t appeal, Laragh is 1.5km east along the road, at the junction of three mountain routes. Trinity Mountain Bothy in Laragh does good soup and sandwiches, and Lynham’s has been a pub since the 1770s - it’s the crossroads where the Military Road ends and the mountain pubs begin.
The round tower’s conical cap looks original but was rebuilt from the original stones in 1876 after a lightning strike. The original doorway - three and a half metres above ground level - was functional, not decorative. When Vikings raided the valley, the monks pulled the ladder up after them.
The return via the Sally Gap brings you through Roundwood on the R755 - officially Ireland’s highest village at 238 metres. If you have a few minutes, the Roundwood Inn on the main street has been a coaching inn since the 17th century and is known for Wicklow game and, improbably, Hungarian goulash. The Coach House across the street has been in the Michelin Guide since August 2024. Both require a booking at weekends; handy to know for a future visit.