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Private 8-hour Tour to Glendalough and Wicklow from Dublin
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From €705 per person
County Wicklow sits just south of Dublin and it’s well worth a full day of your time. Your private driver and official tour guide pick you up from your hotel or wherever suits you in Dublin, and you have both of them entirely to yourselves for eight hours.
The headline stop is Glendalough - a glacial valley cradling one of Ireland’s most atmospheric early medieval monastery complexes. St. Kevin founded the settlement in the 6th century. Most of what you see today was built between the 8th and 12th centuries, restored in the 19th century after centuries of use, Viking raids, and the heavy blow of 1398 when English forces destroyed most of the buildings. The monastery was an important pilgrimage centre after St. Kevin’s death and continued as a working monastic community until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539.
From Glendalough, the tour continues to Wicklow town on the central coast, the capital of County Wicklow, before heading back to Dublin. There’s free time built in for lunch along the way.
Glendalough (3 hours) - The monastic complex founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century, active until 1539. The buildings you can explore were mostly constructed between the 8th and 12th centuries and restored in the 19th century. A well-preserved round tower, several churches, and two glacial lakes make this one of the most evocative early Christian sites in Ireland.
Travel and lunch (3 hours) - Time on the road through the Wicklow countryside, with a free break for lunch.
Wicklow town (2 hours) - The coastal capital of County Wicklow, sitting on the Irish Sea in the province of Leinster, with a population of around 10,356.
At Glendalough, time the crowds. The coach traffic from Dublin typically arrives around 10:30am and leaves before noon. Your private guide can help you work around this. Being at the monastic city at opening time or from mid-afternoon makes a real difference to how the site feels. The round tower, the cathedral, and the two glacial lakes deserve more than a rushed hour.
The actual village is Laragh, 1.5km east. Glendalough itself has a hotel bar and a visitor centre café, but for lunch your best options are in Glendalough - specifically in Laragh, where Trinity Mountain Bothy does soup, sandwiches and proper coffee for walkers, and Lynham’s has a full restaurant. Ask your guide to factor in a Laragh lunch stop.
Walk between the two lakes. If your guide has flexibility in how you use the three hours at Glendalough, the Green Road from the visitor centre along the Lower Lake to the Upper Lake is flat, buggy-friendly, and passes nine of the major monastic ruins. The walk between the lakes takes under an hour and gives you the place at its best.
Wicklow town: aim for the harbour. Wicklow town works best on foot. The Black Castle ruins - built 1176 by Maurice Fitzgerald - sit on a headland above the sea and are free to walk around at any hour. The Lighthouse restaurant on South Quay does seafood from the boats outside, though you’d want to book ahead if that’s where you’re planning lunch. The Historic Gaol is currently closed for renovation, so don’t plan your two hours around it.