Tag Archives: Glendalough

Jan8

Hiking Glendalough, a second time, with the MBA folks!

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Saturday, 28-Sept-2024


I’m still getting my Irish hiking legs under me – I don’t know the areas, the rules, or the systems nearly as well as I’d gotten to know New Hampshire, or Oregon, and so adventures are a bit more challenging to put together.

Thankfully, the MBA program comes pre-equipped with friends who are in the same boat as me, and are interested in getting adventures in!


This time, we headed to a spot that I’d gotten to know earlier in the year – Glendalough, a beautiful circuit hike around a lake down South of Dublin in the Wicklow Mountains. I met up with my friends in the morning, we grabbed a rental car, and took to the road on our way to adventure!

The drive was lovely – I’d gotten comfortably used to driving on the left side of the road by this point, though I did still need to keep one part of my brain focused on it, and so was able to chat pretty easily while we ground out the miles (kilometers) to our adventure. We talked, we listed to music, we enjoyed the escape from the city.

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We hiked, I flew the drone a bit, we said hi to the natives (deer!), and enjoyed the clear air and lovely weather. We snacked, we got some food from the nacho truck at the parking lot, and reveled in the fact that we were in Ireland!

It was, as always, absolutely lovely.

Oct26

My first hike in Ireland – Glendalough!

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My first hike in Ireland – Glendalough!

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.