← All Wicklow tours via partner · From €3 · 8 hours 
The Ultimate Irish Escape: Wicklow, Glendalough & Kilkenny
Free cancellation Booked securely via partner
Check availability & prices →
From €3 per person
Three very different corners of Ireland, one long day, and a private chauffeur-guide to take care of all the logistics. This eight-hour tour from Dublin covers the Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough, and Kilkenny - a combination that takes you from dramatic upland scenery to ancient monastic Ireland to a medieval city full of good pubs and older streets.
The Wicklow Mountains come first, with their lush green valleys and panoramic views. The mountains have doubled as a film location for productions including Braveheart and P.S. I Love You. Your chauffeur-guide navigates the mountain roads while you take it all in from a premium vehicle stocked with Irish drinking water, mints, and your choice of music and fragrance.
Next is Glendalough - the “Valley of the Two Lakes” - where St Kevin founded a monastic settlement in the 6th century. The ruins are remarkably well preserved, set against a glacial valley backdrop that makes it one of the most atmospheric spots in the country. Your guide adds the history and stories that turn a walk around the site into something genuinely memorable.
The day finishes in Kilkenny, Ireland’s medieval capital. You’ll stroll the historic cobblestone streets, see the 12th-century Kilkenny Castle, and get a feel for 800 years of Norman history in a city that wears it well. A private sheepdog experience can be arranged at an additional cost if that’s something you’d like to add.
At Glendalough, the flat Green Road walk from the visitor centre along the Lower Lake to the Upper Lake boardwalk takes about an hour return and passes nine of the main monastic ruins, including the round tower, the cathedral, and St Kevin’s Church (the one with the chimney-shaped belfry the locals call St Kevin’s Kitchen). It’s buggy-friendly and genuinely the best way to read the whole site in sequence. The round tower doorway sits three and a half metres up the wall - that wasn’t decorative, it was defensive; when the Vikings came up the valley, the monks pulled the ladder up after them. If your guide has time and the schedule allows, the short Poulanass Waterfall trail from the Upper Lake car park - 1.5 km return, 40 minutes - climbs through oak woods to a thirty-metre cascade. Worth it if the day is dry.
In Kilkenny, the city hands you an itinerary whether you ask or not. The Medieval Mile runs 1.5 km from the castle at one end to St Canice’s Cathedral at the other, taking in the Tholsel, Rothe House, and the Black Abbey along the way. Climb the round tower at the cathedral if you have the legs for it - 100 steps, 9th century, and the whole town laid out below you. For lunch, Foodworks on Parliament Street does sourdough and eggs done right; Anocht in the old castle stables is the sit-down option if the day calls for it. Tynan’s Bridge House on John’s Bridge is reckoned by most of the town to pour the best pint of Kilkenny stout - tiled floor, mahogany bar, no food, no music, and that’s entirely the point.
The Kilkenny Castle parkland - through the gates opposite the Design Centre, along the River Nore, fifty acres in the middle of a city - is free to walk and gives you a ten-minute reset between the castle visit and wherever you’re eating. The actual castle ticket is a separate question; the park outside it is open and worth your time.