Saturday, 31-Aug-2024

When I first visited Dublin, back in March of 2023, I explored the city. People asked why I didn’t go on any hikes, and I had a simple answer – There’s no question whether or not I’d love hiking in Ireland, so I didn’t need to test that out.

Well, I still hold to that, but it’s high time that I got to experience the glory. When my apartment put out a message asking if anyone wanted to head out into a nearby wilderness area… I jumped at the chance.

Glendalough (Pronounced “Glen-Da-Low” or “Glen-Dah-law”, depending on who you ask) is about an hour and a half South of Dublin; a lake, with an absolutely beautiful set of trails surrounding it. We parked, I was astounded at how nice and well appointed the trailhead was (it has three food trucks! One with Nacho fries!), we met our guide, and… we headed inbound!

The trail itself started out lovely, but a little bit easy – paved, wide, easily simple enough for a standard sedan to drive down. It wound through the woods, along the lake, and then finally into the basin below the cliffs at the end of the lake, with the main river feeding into it. It was simple, beautiful, and a lovely chance to chat with the folks who’d joined in on the hike.

From there, we headed upward – the steepest part of the hike was a lovely moderate set of switchbacks, winding up that basin beside the cliffs, finally crossing the stream and following a ridgeline back along the side of the lake, soaring up a few hundred meters above the water. The trails were perfect – either graded gravel, or wooden planks with traction nails included. Seriously – this wasn’t wilderness, but it was vaguely wild.

I mean, we saw a deer, so…

The hike started, went, and concluded beautifully. Simple, fun, and just tiring enough that I felt I’d earned my lunch. I wasn’t quite hungry enough to go in on nacho fries at the parking lot, but I was at just the right spot for an absolutely lovely dinner once we got home.

An absolutely lovely hike. I didn’t quite see any fey, but… let’s be real here – I’ve definitely started exploring where they might live.