Glendalough

The technical issue which was due to delay all of RyanAir's flights this morning was somehow resolved and Fiona's flight arrived in Dublin on time. Dad and I collected her and then after breakfast, headed back up to the airport to get the hire car for the next 2 days. On a whim I decided to get a satnav with the car. I had only used on before in the States (Michigan, Nov 08) and was curious if they had really caught on in Europe. I know route mapping was popular but when we were in Midland we were able to enter things like "toy store" and get results. When I got back to Scotland I tried a machine at the local Dixons but very few businesses had been googled by then, so the feature didn't really work and there wee few categories apart from address. I entered my mum's house and the route suggested was the same one I would take anyway, so I headed off with some confidence.
 After checking the paper map (M50, Junct11, N81, R756: I work with IT, I'm not stupid) we headed off with our packed lunches for Glendalough. So far so good the sat nav brought us out of Swords and headed south towards the airport and the M50. It wouldn't let us on the M50 though. I figured the maps were out of data as some of these roads are very new, the tarmac still warm. But no problem, it would eventually catch up. But no. Despite knowing we were on the M50 it was not happy about us driving on it, attempting to direct us off at every junction, ending in a desperate cry of "Recalculating" once it realised we still weren't going its way. Finally we made it to J11 and we decided to let it have its way. It immediately brought us through a housing estate but eventually we ended up on the R115. This would have been a lovely road to take had the weather been anything other than what it was - pouring rain, with low cloud. Sadly we were climbing in the Wicklow Mountains with poor visibility. I was quite disappointed - I knew the scenery was amazing but you just couldn't see that much. As we crawled along the road passing sodden cyclists it finally began to lighten. By the time we came across Glenmacness Waterfall I had to stop for a photo as it was finally clear enough to get an idea of the entire region.

Glenmacness Waterfall, Wicklow panoramic made from 35 photos

Once we arrived at Glendalough (and ate lunch) the weather did improve. We headed into the Visitor Centre where we were told that we could pay to see the exhibition and film, or just go outside and see the Tower and other monuments for free. He then suggested that as it was dry, to just go back outside and come back when it started to rain. Finding it hard to fault his logic we headed back out and into the "Monastic Village".

The tower and the buildings are quite impressive. The remaining structures are estimated to have been built in the 10th-12th century, but the site had been active since the 6th century. From a teasing point of view, it has a very good example of the early Irish space programme with turf fired granite rockets. As we walked through the site we were really taken with the cemetery. Some of the graves were quite old while some were surprisingly new - I hadn't appreciated that the cemetery was still active.
We then started on a half hearted walk to the lakes which are further up the valley. We didn't get too far before the rain started and we felt compelled to turn back, which did seem to appease the rain gods since the rain more or less stopped.
After visiting the visitor centre and watching the film we again turned on the sat nav and headed back home. The trip home still wouldn't let us use the motorway but since we knew where we were we didn't feel to bothered.