Our path from Dublin to Kilkenny, our next home-from-home, crossed the Wicklow Mountains. I was hoping we’d have enough time to stop at Glendalough (the glen between two lakes) for a hike. It’s considered by many to be the most beautiful stretch of the 81-mile Wicklow Way walking path. But we spent more time on Bray Head than I’d expected and had a delicious, relaxing lunch in Enniskerry. Time had gotten away from us.
And something we learned at lunch threw a monkey wrench into what was left of our afternoon: We discovered in Enniskerry that our new favorite brewery, Wicklow Wolf Brewing, is located in Bray where we had just hiked the Head. Marcus and I looked at each other. “I guess we’ll have to go back,” he said. So after lunch, we retraced our steps to Bray to visit the brewery. We had a nice chat with one of the guys who works there, bought a T-shirt, then retraced our steps to Enniskerry and on to Glendalough.
We entered the valley from the south. The lush green foothills, with their peaceful pastures of cattle and sheep sloping upward to the mountains, reminded me of the picture-perfect valleys of Switzerland. As we headed deeper into the valley, the landscape became rockier and the vegetation sparse; it called to mind the high desert south of Reno, Nevada. And then we encountered the River Glencalo rushing over boulders past the ruins of a lead mine, and I thought of the Colorado Rockies.
The changing landscape of Glendalough is worth a trip in itself, but there are also ruins to explore. St. Kevin’s 6th-century monastic settlement and all the churches and related structures built in the ensuing centuries. I needed more time.
So we went back a few days later—a day trip from Kilkenny. We packed a lunch and climbed into the hills. It was a cold and blustery day down on the valley floor, but the sun shone and the two-and-a-half hour hike was warming. The trail took us 600 feet up a mountainside for excellent views of the valley below. Wonderful hike, amazing day!
Something we’ve learned from previous extended travel: There’s never enough time to do all the things on the itinerary. Choose the thing you’d most like to do at the moment, and enjoy it fully. And if there’s something you didn’t get to that you know you’ll regret missing, don’t hesitate to backtrack if you can. We may never pass this way again.
