Nameless peaks in between Tonelagee and Mullaghcleevaun

I went hiking again today in the middle of the Wicklows. I did two nameless hills in between  Tonelagee and Mullaghcleevaun. The hike was about 7 km’s climbing from 400 mtrs to 780 mtrs high. Great weather and a nice hike.

Glenmacnass

Today J and I took a drive through the Wicklow mountains to go and see the Glenmacnass waterfall. It started out quite foggy but the views soon opened up. The Glenmacnass waterfall and valley were beautiful.

Then we had a quick bite to eat in Laragh in the ‘Glendalough Green’ which is a mix between coffeehouse and grocery shop and one of J’s favorites. As it has been raining quite hard for the last week we also decided to revisit Powerscourt waterfall on the assumption that it would be quite large now.

Ended the day with two visits to the Wicklow Avoca stores where J bought a Dutch teatowel.

Moanbane Mountain

Back to hiking up mountains after a break. Today I planned to do Sorrell mountain but when I got there I decided to go a different route. After hiking over a small unnamed hill I got to a stream with Moanbane behind it. Followed the stream down for a bit and then climbed Moanbane.

One of the best views so far. Moanbane has no paths and was completely empty. The views were great, not a man made thing in sight. I could see the reservoir near Glendalough which looked like a weird mountain top castle from the distance. Great day.

Varty Reservoir & Lough Dan

Another day in the Wicklow mountains. But before we even reached J
spotted a sign for the Avoca store so that is where we ended up first.

Then we drove around the Varty Reservoir which has a weird little
castle type tower where the water is pumped out of the reservoir for
working. Also they had a cool shield there with what appears to be a
castle under attack.

We then drove up to Lough Dan and hiked along it for a couple of
hours. Really great views.

Mountain next to Glenasmore Reservoir

A very wet day with poring rain which turned everything soggy. There were little streams everywhere and moths paths on the mountain where either extremely muddy or a stream to wade through. Low clouds again so no views.

My drive along the lake was very beautiful and I will definitely return on a clearer day. I walked for approx 3 hrs and found that my waterproof gear wasn’t as waterproof as I thought.

Powerscourt Mountain

Short and easy hike up Powerscourt mountain today. It has a huge areal on top so there is a asphalted road leading to the top making the normal muddy experience of going up a Wicklow mountain a lot easier. Some great views of Dublin, Bray and Sally Gap with the mountains behind. You could see almost all my previous hikes.

It’s about 740 meters high but it took me only about 1,5 hrs up and down again because you can park quite high up. Unfortunately you couldn’t hike to the cliffs with the two lakes below due to the amount of very wet peat/bog in between. Very worthwhile walk quite near Dublin very good if you’re a beginner and want to test whether you like it.

Powerscourt estate, waterfall and mountain

Today J and I had a powerscourt day. We first went to the Powerscourt estate, there were some good shops for J and she bought some knitted stuff and then didn’t want to view the gardens and mansion any more. Guess that is a strategy to make me go back there again for more shopping ;-).

We then went to the waterfall which was beautiful but you do have to pay 5.50 pp to see it. Worthwhile though. Then through Sally Gap (where I showed J some of the mountains I have walked) to Powerscourt mountain to see whether it is worth walking. Looked allright, it’s next up.

Keadeen Mountain

It is in the south of the Wicklow Mountains and about 650 meters high. I started out at Dwyers McAllister cottage which is an original Irish cottage where two Irish rebels were cornered by the English in the late 18th century. One of them drew fire to let the other one escape by standing in the doorway.

It wasn’t a good day for hiking as there were low clouds so I didn’t get any of the great views :-(. It is a plateau mountain which means that the top is more or less flat, this unfortunately also means that the water up there is stagnant and the ground therefore very boggy.

Discovered a beautiful stream running down the mountain on the way down and followed it’s course down to the road. There was no path and it was a lot of slipping and sliding but the beauty of the stream was worth it.

Arklow to Wexford(ish)

Wifey and I continued our discovery of the Irish coast today. We still had a gap between Arklow and Waterford. Unfortunately I slept a bit too late (again) so we couldn’t finish it entirely and had to turn back around Blackwater. 

It was a lovely day with mostly clear blue skies. Went too a lot of beaches and found some cool old ruins of a farm along the way. Nothing to dramatic in the sense of views here just some nice beaches and scenery as you would expect in Ireland.

Lough Tay and Luggala mountain

I went hiking around Lough Tay in the Wicklow Mountains today. Unfortunately the area around it turned out to be owned privately and therefore it wasn’t possible to go where you liked. However you were allowed to hike some of the areas. I went up mountain Luggala which is actually one of the few places from where you can see the lake.It is about 580 meters high and the trail up is a track straight up the mountain, despite it being cold I was sweating quite hard by the end of it. I shared the mountain with a large herd of deer only, not a living soul in sight! From here you can also hike to Lough Dan which is supposed to be pretty too. One of my favs will definitely come back here.

Little Sugarloaf Mountain

Yeah, I have my new camera so I hope the pictures are better now. I still can’t be bothered to photoshop them. After having enjoyed the Sugarloaf Mountain so much I did the little version of it today. It is in between Bray and the Big one. Short but lovely walk with a bit of searching for the way up. Pretty cold today so I got to field test the gloves and woolly hat my wife bought for me.

Sugarloaf mountain

Today I climbed the Sugarloaf mountain (yeah my first mountain) and went down the other side to hike the three hills next to it. It was lovely with nobody there (very windy today) You could see some of my old hikes (Howth and Bray to Greystone) from the top. I need a better camera and good weather! The pictures don’t do the views justice.