Wicklow Mountains and Kilkenny City Private Tour

About

County Wicklow earned its “Garden of Ireland” nickname for good reason - rolling hills, glacial lakes, mountain passes, and sheep grazing through lush green valleys. This private day tour takes you right into the heart of it, with stops at some of the county’s most compelling spots.

Glendalough, “the valley of the two lakes”, sits at the centre of the Wicklow Mountains National Park. A hiking path winds past the lakes, a waterfall, deer, sheep, and the medieval monastery that St. Kevin founded here in the 6th century. It’s a place that genuinely stops people in their tracks.

A short drive from Glendalough brings you to Lough Tay, better known as Guinness Lake. The dark water and sandy beach on one shore make it look startlingly like a giant pint of Guinness - which is exactly why it was used as the fictional Viking village of Kattegad in the TV series Vikings. The area will also be familiar to fans of P.S. I Love You, which filmed just minutes away (the bridge scene with Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler).

Kilkenny City is the smallest city in Ireland, though it was once the country’s capital. It carries real depth - early Christian, medieval, and Norman influences woven together across Kilkenny Castle, St. Canice’s Cathedral, and the Black Abbey. It’s also the home of Smithwick’s. There are good options for lunch here.

What’s Included

• Driver-guide
• Transport by van
• Entrance fees to Kilkenny Castle
• Lunch

Local Tips

At Glendalough, the flat Green Road between the Lower and Upper Lakes is 3 km return and the most rewarding walk you can do in the time you have. It takes you past the round tower and the monastic city ruins, through oak woods, and out to the beach at the Upper Lake foot. The round tower is 10th-century, thirty metres tall, with the doorway three and a half metres off the ground - the monks pulled the ladder up when the Vikings came up the valley looking for silver. Whether that always worked is a different question.

The Poulanass Waterfall is 1.5 km from the Upper Lake car park - a thirty-metre cascade through mossed-up rock, reached by a short trail through oak woodland. If your guide is flexible with timing, it’s worth the twenty extra minutes. The deer come out of the Glenealo Valley woods in the afternoon; keep an eye on the treeline above the Upper Lake.

Lough Tay (Guinness Lake) is best seen from the road above - the viewing point on the R759 gives you the full pint-of-Guinness effect, the sand on one side, the dark mountain water. It’s a short stop but a striking one, and the Wicklow Mountain context makes the Vikings filming choice obvious when you see it.

In Kilkenny, with lunch included, you’re well placed for the Medieval Mile walk after the castle. From the castle gates, the walk north through the Butter Slip and up to St Canice’s Cathedral and its climbable round tower is 1.5 km one way and covers the best of the medieval city. The cathedral’s 9th-century round tower has 100 steps to the top; the view back over the town is the reason. If there’s time for a pint before the road home, Tynan’s Bridge House on John’s Bridge is the one the locals go to - tiled floor, mahogany bar, no music, generations of the same family, a pint of stout that earns its reputation. Explore more of Glendalough and Kilkenny on your own time.

Nearby on IrelandMe

• Glendalough - a 6th-century monastic city at the bottom of two glacial lakes in the Wicklow Mountains National Park, with walking trails from easy lakeshore paths to full-day mountain ridges
• Kilkenny - Ireland’s smallest city and one of its most medieval, where the castle, the cathedral, and a kilometre and a half of limestone laneways sit within a twenty-minute walk of each other