Ireland Day 3 Thursday 30.3.23 County Wicklow

 

This morning , we drove 30 miles southwest from the campsite in Dublin . Our first stop was a very smart sea side town called Bray. We walked along the sea front to the harbour. 

I counted 50 swans resting on the beach area 

Shingle  beach  at Bray with strong currents : two cold water swimmers were spotted in the most sheltered part of the  water 

Drawn to an out of season candy- stripe ice- cream hut

Happy to see patches of blue after 48 hours of rain and grey skies 

We drove on to the Wicklow National park (the largest park in Ireland) and parked in the Glendalough Hotel car park next to the visitor centre. The countryside  here is very picturesque ; Co. Wicklow is known as the garden county. 

We  accessed the start of the  walk alongside the lower lake via the ruins of an  ecclesiastical settlement . The path running alongside the lake is tarmacked. We reached the upper lake and crossed the causeway to pick up the route to an abandoned miners village at the far end of the second lake. 

A beautiful ramble of 10K alongside two lakes with wild goats grazing on the banks beside us.We drove home across moorland very similar to Scotland and arrived back at the campsite at 7 pm. A peaceful day. 

Entrance to the ruins of the settlement 

A tour bus  group in the ruins of the cathedral 

Idyllically peaceful grave yard 

The bell tower  used to call the monks to worship

Some very old gravestones 

Crossing a busy river to get to the walk 

Colourful hillside woods

Lakeside views

St Kevin's bed ( cave across the lake) 

This was the start of the miners route on the right side of the upper lake. The nearby estate was owned by the Guinness family ( the water for their Guinness factory is drawn from here) and has just been sold for 22 million euros .

There was a small crowd  of young people on the beach area taking selfies of each other as we passed. 

We reached the ruins of the miners settlement at the end of the upper lake 

Stepping stones leading to the tumbledown walls of the lead miners cottages, a bleak windswept spot. 

We made our way back towards the lower lake , spotting some wild goats en route 

We took a different route back the Visitors centre , on the other side of the lower lake , across the wetlands and along the boardwalk 

Across the river again   and back  to the start of the walk by the Glendalough visitors centre

Sad to leave this beautiful place