← All Wicklow tours via Viator · From €30 · 24 hours 
Wicklow tour of Glendalough
Free cancellation 8 traveller reviews Booked securely via Viator
Check availability & prices →
From €30 per person
Just an hour south of Dublin, the Wicklow Mountains feel like a different world. This day tour takes you straight to the best of it - the ancient monastic city of Glendalough and Lough Tay, the dark mirror lake affectionately known as the Guinness Lake, tucked deep in the mountains.
Your driver-guide keeps the commentary rolling from the moment you leave the city, weaving history and local knowledge through the journey. Glendalough gives you the full story - sixth-century monks, round towers, and the two glacial lakes that make this valley one of the most photographed spots in Ireland. It’s the kind of place that stops you mid-step.
You’ll need a reasonable level of fitness for this one - there’s walking involved at the sites. Children must be accompanied by an adult. The tour runs in all weather, so dress in layers and bring something waterproof.
Group size is up to 49 people. The tour is guided in English. You meet outside the Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre.
Make the most of your time at Glendalough: the monastic city is compact, but the real valley experience is the walk. The flat Green Road from the visitor centre to the Upper Lake takes about twenty-five minutes each way and passes the round tower, the cathedral, St Kevin’s Church (the one locals call St Kevin’s Kitchen for its chimney-shaped belfry), the graveyard, and several other medieval church ruins before opening out at the beach end of the Upper Lake. If your guide gives you free time, this is the walk to do.
What the round tower tells you: the doorway at Glendalough is three and a half metres off the ground - not a design quirk but a defensive measure. When Viking raiders came up the valley looking for monastery silver, the monks pulled the rope ladder up behind them. The tower is about thirty metres of mica-slate and granite, and the conical roof was rebuilt from original stones in 1876 after a lightning strike.
If you want food near Glendalough, go to Laragh rather than the visitor centre café. The crossroads hamlet is 1.5km east of the monastic site, where the Military Road, the R755, and the Glendalough road all meet. Lynham’s of Laragh has been a pub on this site since the 1770s and does proper food. Trinity Mountain Bothy is a small daytime café handling soup, sandwiches, and good coffee. Both are quieter than the valley café and both are run by people who actually live here.
Lough Tay on the way back: the viewing point over Lough Tay is a roadside stop, not a long walk, but don’t rush it. The lake sits below a white sandy beach and dark peaty water against the mountain backdrop - the Guinness comparison is accurate, and the view from the road above is genuinely striking. Afternoon light from the west is the best light for it. Roundwood, on the R755 a few minutes north of Lough Tay, is the highest village in Ireland and worth a stop at the Roundwood Inn on the way back to Dublin.
Dress for the day: Glendalough sits in a valley between the mountains and the weather changes quickly. Layers and a waterproof are not optional from October to May. Even in summer, the valley can be several degrees cooler than Dublin.