Ireland (Day Two) - The Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough Tower

Greetings - long time no see! Happy 2023!

What have I been up to? Well, I had my baby. He's a fussy one and up until now I haven't had the time for much other than him. But don't you think I forgot about this blog. I've been dying to post the rest of my Ireland photos. So here we are, my second day there. 

I was still at the Riverside House, and my husband and I decided to venture to the Wicklow Mountain National Park. The first view we saw was this beautiful lake. Glendalough Lake with the mountains in the background. 

The beauty is serene. In that last photo there's a grey heron right by the fence. 

Saw this past the lake as we curved in more towards a structure of the park. 

We also passed by a little creek before seeing the next featured structure. There was a beautiful bouquet of flowers thrown in it. I'm not sure what the significance of it was, but there were many little magical touches like this all through Ireland. 

Here is the Reefert Church in the park. 

Ground daisies set daintily in the windowsill on the stone.

"The remains of Reefert Church are situated in a woodland setting, on the south-eastern shore of the Upper Lake close to the Information Office. Reefert derives its name from the Irish ‘Righ Fearta’ meaning burial place of the kings (referring to the local rulers – the O’Toole family). It dates from the eleventh century and is likely to have been built on the site of an earlier church. The church and graveyard were originally surrounded by a stone wall enclosure known in Gaelic as a ‘caiseal.’ Most of the present surrounding walls however are modern. The upper parts of the church walls were re-built over 100 years ago using the original stones.

GPS Coordinates

Latitude: 52.981331

Longitude: -6.042031" - Source: https://visitwicklow.ie/listing/reefert-church/

This stunning tree.

Poulanass Waterfall - I could NOT walk all the way up the steps. My husband had to take this photo from about 3/4 of the way up. I was six months pregnant with a back injury as well!

I saw a lot of children playing on that tree right after I took this shot.

These were from a lovely garden outside of the visitors center in the park. The visitors center looked like an old cottage.

A view from the north side of the lake. The first shots of the lake I was on the east side. This last photo features the "three stone docks."

One last photo featuring the Wicklow mountains from the park. We left shortly after seeing all of this. 

That evening my husband and I decided to take the trail from the place we were staying, but the opposite way, towards the town of Glendalough. This town used to be a monks village from 6th to 12th century. It was founded by Saint Kevin, until the Normans destroyed it in 1214 A.D. They did get attacked by many Vikings during that time as well, but always managed to survive the attacks. 

Here we saw the famous Glendalough Tower, or the Glendalough Round Tower. 

"The most famous of all the landmarks in Glendalough is the Round Tower which stands 33 meters above the ground. It was built almost 1000 years ago by the monks of St. Kevin’s monastery. The conical roof had to be replaced in 1876 when it was struck by lightning. The towers were called “Cloigtheach,” meaning bell tower, suggesting their main use. The towers were sometimes used as a place of refuge for monks when the monastery was under attack. They also served as both as lookout posts and as beacons for approaching monks and pilgrims.

GPS Coordinates

Latitude: 53.010915

Longitude: -6.327656" Source: https://visitwicklow.ie/listing/the-round-tower-glendalough/

So you're not confused of the layout, here's a map. There's a lot in a little space. 

The graveyard and structure as part of the Monastic City.

Saint Kevin's Church

Another grey heron!

Glendalough Cathedral

That was the end of seeing the Glendalough Monastic City. There was so much in that small space so I hope that map helped. After we visited this, we went to the Glendalough Hotel (we had been considering staying there, but I loved the Riverside House so much). The hotel had an amazing restaurant where I actually had a woodfire pizza! My husband had his first Guinness there in Ireland. It was a pretty great experience for him. There was some confusion because I wanted a soda, but the first waitress called soda a "mineral." Then when another member of the wait staff came back and I was ready to order, he had no idea what soda or mineral meant so I ended up with sparkling water at the end of it. It was pretty good.

After dinner we walked down the road to the trail again, and back to our hotel. This was our last view of the Glendalough Round Tower. The midges, as the Irish call them (mosquitos for us Americans), were starting to come out. We wrapped up our second day and went to bed, ready to leave the Wicklow Mountains the next day and onto the next venture!