Wicklow Mountains Glendalough and Kilkenny from Dublin 12 Hour

About This Tour

This private day trip takes you from Dublin into two of Ireland’s most rewarding destinations in a single long day. You’ll explore the Wicklow Mountains National Park, spend time at the ancient monastic site of Glendalough, and then head south to Kilkenny for a visit to the medieval castle at the heart of the city.

Wicklow’s landscape is genuinely striking - glacial valleys, mountain lakes, and rolling green hills just an hour from Dublin. Glendalough gives you early Christian history in a beautiful setting, with the round tower, cathedral ruins, and two lakes. Then Kilkenny Castle brings you into medieval Ireland, with its elegant rooms and well-kept gardens telling the story of the powerful Butler family who shaped so much of this part of the country.

Your guide is with you throughout, and the tour is fully private - it moves at your pace.

What’s Included

Entrance ticket to Kilkenny Castle
Professional guide
Air-conditioned vehicle
Private transportation

What’s Not Included

Meals and beverages
Gratuities

Itinerary

Wicklow Mountains National Park - You’ll spend around an hour here taking in the rolling hills, glacial valleys, and mountain lakes. It’s the kind of scenery that reminds you why Wicklow is called the Garden of Ireland - and it’s remarkable that it’s so close to the capital.
Glendalough - Around an hour to walk the ancient monastic site, take in both lakes, and enjoy the valley scenery. There are also short hiking trails if you want to stretch your legs a bit further.
Kilkenny Castle - About an hour to tour this well-preserved medieval fortress, once home to the Butler family. The castle gardens are lovely, and the interior gives you a real sense of how the Anglo-Norman aristocracy lived for centuries here.

Good to Know

This is a private tour, conducted in English
Travel time is included in the 12-hour total duration
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Public transport options are available nearby
Not recommended for travellers with poor cardiovascular health
Suitable for all fitness levels

Local Tips

At Glendalough, walk toward the Upper Lake. The main ruins - round tower, cathedral, St Kevin’s Church - are near the visitor centre, but the valley’s real character is further in. The Green Road is a flat, well-maintained path that runs from the visitor centre along the Lower Lake to the Upper Lake in about twenty-five minutes. With an hour on site, doing both is feasible if you move at a decent pace. The Upper Lake is where the glacial valley walls close in and the silence arrives. That’s the walk. The round tower’s doorway is set three and a half metres off the ground - built that way deliberately, so the monks could pull the ladder up when Viking raiders came into the valley. Glendalough rewards a walk rather than a stand-and-photograph approach.

The village with the food is Laragh, 1.5km east. Glendalough itself has a visitor centre café that’s fine for a coffee and nothing more. If your guide allows a food stop, Laragh - at the junction of the Military Road and the R755 - has Lynham’s of Laragh for a proper lunch and Trinity Mountain Bothy for soup and sandwiches. Both are better than the visitor centre option and both are run by people who live in the area.

In Kilkenny, the castle ticket is included - and the gardens are free. The fifty-acre parkland behind Kilkenny Castle is open without charge, running along the River Nore through formal gardens and open grassland. It’s the largest open green space in the city and a good place to decompress after the castle tour before you explore the streets. The Medieval Mile - from the castle at one end to St Canice’s Cathedral at the other - is entirely walkable and entirely free.

Lunch in Kilkenny: go local. The tour doesn’t include meals, so you’ll need to plan. Rinuccini, opposite the castle gates, has been run by the same family since 1989 and does serious Italian. Foodworks on Parliament Street is the brunch-and-lunch option. If you want something faster, there are delis on the high street. Kyteler’s Inn is worth a look for the 1324 history and the medieval cellars, but for a proper meal in Kilkenny the other options are better value at lunchtime.

Twelve hours is a long day - pace yourself at Glendalough. The itinerary goes Wicklow first, then Kilkenny. If you try to do the Spinc walk at Glendalough (a four-hour loop) you’ll arrive in Kilkenny on empty. The Green Road between the lakes is an hour return and gives you the full valley experience without burning out before the second half of the day.

Nearby on IrelandMe

Glendalough - A 6th-century monastic city at the bottom of two glacial lakes, with a round tower, a cathedral, seven ruined churches, and a flat lakeshore walk between them. The pubs and food are in Laragh, 1.5km east.
Kilkenny - The smallest city in Ireland: a Norman castle with fifty acres of free parkland, a Medieval Mile to St Canice’s Cathedral, and a pub scene anchored by Tynan’s Bridge House - where locals go for the best pint of stout in the city.