A day tour of the Wicklow mountains leaves one with the impression that all is as it should be in Ireland. Every stereotypical picture you've ever had of rolling green hills covered with grass is exactly what these mountains look like. Close up they are a little more interesting as there a great big rectangular gouges missing where licensed families were allowed to remove sections of the peat which was compressed into bricks and burned.
Our first stop was a little unconventional as our tour bus driver stopped off to purchase some tools for about 10 minutes. I felt like I was 10 years old and dad had told me to wait in the car while he stopped off at the hardware store. Turns out he had his shed broken into and all his tools stolen, so he was replacing them.
Our first official stop on the tour was while climbing the Wicklows and we had a glorious view of Dublin through the fog and rain. A lovely Irish day for a jaunt in the mountains.
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| Dublin is in there somewhere |
Second stop was one of the many lakes in the mountains where I got to bounce around on some of the peat bog. It was the springiest ground I've ever encountered as I'm much more used to the hard, concrete-like packed dirt or clay of Australian soil. After enjoying the view of the lake, which didn't do much except allow the wind to pick up some more water and throw it at us, so we were getting rain from both above and below, we stopped for a much needed tea break in the shelter of the side of the bus.
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| Oceans of heather in the Wicklows |
We continued along our way through the mountains accompanied by lots of stories of the area, from the mass grave of German airmen shot down or sailors washed ashore during the war, to the stories of billeted German children who lived in the area after the war.
The area we were travelling through was even more photogenic than our crappy cameras allowed for, it's been a staple location for lots of movies for many years. We stopped at a bridge used in the movie "PS I Love You". This bridge crosses the river Liffe which is just a stream at this point. We passed a valley that was used as part of the Scottish countryside in "Braveheart" and passed near the coastline that served as the beaches of Normandy in "Saving Private Ryan". Interestingly enough most of the Scottish armies as well as the invading Allies and defending German forces were all filled in by the Irish Reserve Army forces.
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| The Liffe is just a stream up here in the mountains |
We continued upwards driving along roads that were perfectly safe except for the treacherous drop down one side. Although narrow and windy we got a great view of many of the valleys and we eventually stopped at a lookout point where we could see down to
Guinness Lake. Named after the member of the Guinness family who owns the property this lake is very deep, and has brownish water that has been filtered through the peat to give it a deep, dark brown colour. Add to that the white sand beach that has been constructed at one end of the lake and you have something resembling a pint of Guinness when viewed from several hundred metres above.
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| Guinness Lake |
We headed down at this point and got off the bus for a short stroll down the road to view the waterfall and then head into the town of Laragh for lunch.
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| Glendalough Waterfall |
After lunch we headed to Glendalough and the remains of a monastery. This was the home of St Kevin, who decided to become a hermit in an old copper mine halfway up an almost sheer mountainside. Of course people hearing about a crazy recluse living halfway up a mountain instead of doing the sensible thing and having him committed, decided the to visit with him and learn the scriptures. A wooden monastery was built by one of the lakes, which was eventually replaced by a stone monastery with a lookout tower and walls.
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| The tower at the Glendalough Monastery |
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| Inside the church at Glendalough Monastery |
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| One of the twin lakes at the monastery. St Kevins cave is supposedly somewhere up on the left mountain |
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| Bonus Picture, Sancha lying in the heather |
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