Week in Wicklow

Fiona and I spent the past week in a cottage just outside Blessington in Wicklow. There was no WiFi and the poor mobile signal meant I didn't incur any extortionate roaming charges. Also meant were pleasantly out of touch for the week.

We got the ferry from Troon to Larne on Saturday morning, taking my brand new, 5 miles on the clock, company car. The sailing and drive to my mums was calm while I got used to the new car.

We took my folks out for dinner since it was father's day on the Sunday and my mum's birthday the next Thursday. 

After the fry up Sunday morning, Fiona and I headed off to the cottage. All through the drive the weather was picking up, we had a "holding high" forecast for the week, to keep the weather good.

We got to the cottage in good time. Its was a few miles outside Blessington, just up from the primary school in Lackan. It was a modern cottage - 2 bedrooms, open plan kitchen dining room with sitting room around the corner. 

We headed out for a drive and found that there was filming going on for the tv show Vikings. We much watch this and see what we recognise. Chinese takeaway and then a stroll around the area.

Monday dawned a little overcast but it didn't slow us. Into the car for a drive across the Wicklow mountains. 

During the drive the mist rolled in dropping visibility to a few metres. The drive was haunting and eerie.

We crossed the peak and suddenly the mist started to clear. After a few minutes the scenery was amazing (it was amazing all the time but we just couldn't see it)

Down on the shore of one of the lakes it looked like another Vikings scene. A wooden village was being built on the shore line below the cliff.

After stopping to get lunch we ended up in the devil's glen, heading to the waterfall. I had spent a weekend here when I was still in school, the only time I was ever hostel-ing. After our sandwiches we had a pleasant walk to the waterfall, observing various art installations along the way.

Instead of eatng out tonight, we decided to cook, so after a trip to the shops, tea and cake outside in the sun, fajitas were born. With strawberries and meringues. Cava and rummikub finished the evening.

Tuesday was Powerscourt day. There was something for both of us - garden for Fiona and waterfall for me. More windy roads today but since there was no mist the view was extraordinary. 

Arrived at the gardens and headed round. Spectacular in the sunshine. Incredible plantings and formal gardens. After we walked though we sat and had an ice cream in the sunshine.

We then headed for the waterfall. What a disappointment. Not the waterfall itself - that was spectacular. But there was no walk. You drive up (and pay per head to get in) right to the base of the waterfall. You walk from the car, though there is a circular route so you could actually stay in the car if you wanted, and the entire view is right there.

There were a couple of ambivalent paths, none marked, none seemed very long. I felt robbed since I had expected a few km walk to the waterfall. 

Once we arrived back in Blessington there was a fleet of Viking long ships rowing down the lake.
After dinner in a local pub it was gin and bitter back at the cottage.

Wednesday started calm and bright. The lake was glassy - mirror like, if you had a big mirror you could only keep flat.

Over muesli we planned the day. The thought of walking along the coast from Bray to Greystones seemed the most attractive option. Plus it gave us the opportunity to see if we could climb either the great or small sugar loafs.
Turn on the sat nav and the fastest route is quite boring. The shortest looks like more fun so off we go. This road is narrow, bumpy, and full of sheep but we get into Bray just after a hard sea mist settles and we can see nothing.

We park and decide to do the 6km cliff walk into Greystones. We decided against water, sun cream, and Fiona brings her fleece to keep warm, but within 10 minutes the sun burns off most of the mist, and starts on me.
Beautiful walk along the coast, the sun making it reminiscent of Crete last year.

We make if into Greystones and look for something to drink. 10 minutes on the dart has us back in Bray. 

Which is jumping by now. 

We get back to the car and drive down to Wicklow town which was much quieter. After tea and cake we simply walked through the town, ending up at the ruined castle where we sat for an hour looking out over the water.

Drove back to the cottage, stopping for aftersun and Indian takeaway.

Thursday started a bit cooler, thankfully as my nose is quite burned. We decided to head to the abbey at Baltinglass, so off we headed. 

After some sat nav confusion we arrived at the abbey's remains. Bit of an odd place . They are currently maintaining it so you can't actually get in. And there's just a single remaining wall. 

Oh well.
No photos either. Since there was a guy in the portacabin, who never came out to speak to us, I didn't want to take pictures in case he thought I was an inspector or something.

Off then to Rath Gael ring fort. This was somewhat better. Again, this is somewhere where they are preserving. They are clearing the ground and ultimately building a car park. There was a central thick ring wall of dry stone and three outer rings of stone and earth. Not much else but impressive to see what was built 4000 years ago.

Our next stop was the village of Shillelagh where the famous sticks come from. 

Sadly this was a complete damp squib. We saw one shop selling shillelaghs but it was closed. 

We then decided to visit Dwyer McAllister's cottage. We had no idea of who he was or why his cottage was on our tourist map, but it was nearby. It was much harder to find but we persevered and finally arrived.

It was closed. But look at the opening hours - Last admission is 45 minutes before closing, but the opening hours are Daily from Mid June to Mid September

We couldn't find the stone circle.

We decided to give up and head for food. Fiona wanted to try a pub we passed a few times. They were closed too. But I finally got Fiona to drive a bit. We headed back into Blessington where we went back go the pub from Tuesday night. More gin at the cottage where we got to watch England lose to Uruguay.

Friday was our last day in the cottage. So after packing up and signing out we decided to head to a path and lake we had spied earlier in the week. We hadn't walked the path that day as Fiona wanted to have long trousers on in case of ticks.
From the cottage we followed the main road

until we made it to the lay by where the view stopped us earlier in the week.

A pleasant walk along Lough Bray Upper and lower.

Back to the car and we people watched for a while, amused at the number of people who came, and looked at the view without getting out of the car.

After we were done it was a drive back to my folks in Dublin for a family party Saturday night and the ferry home on Sunday afternoon.

With no wifi and no phone signal, even if I wanted to pay the roaming charges (I don't understand why the global company I use says I can't use my contract while I use their service abroad - its not like they charge themselves a fee or anything) and no way to get the photos off the cameras and online, this was writtten off line while we were away and uploaded on 28th June. The date shown is for my records.