A Day in the Mountains

---

Glendalough- Glen of Two Lakes

On this past long weekend I decided to use one of my days off to take a bus tour around the Wicklow Mountains. The bus picked me up at 9am and took a short drive around dublin before we headed for Wicklow. The driver was really funny and did his very best to get everyone excited for the journey on an early sunday morning. First, we headed to Laragh, which is a small village just ouside of Glendalough. On the way there we drove through Dalkey where Bono lives and another small village where Daniel Day Louis lives. Apparently, he was in town just the other weekend and when someone asked him why he loves wicklow so much he said "it is my sanctuary" and that was all he said. In Laragh, we stopped for a quick coffee break and to stretch out legs. Where we stopped is a bridge that was built in 1700 and our bus drove over top of it!!!

We then moved on to Glendalough, which means Glen of two lakes... But the locals call it the land of seven churches because, simply, there are seven churches built within the Glen. The lakes in glendalough are glacial lakes and absolutely beautiful. They are nestled into the middle of the mountains along with a big waterfall. At the base of the mountain is an old cemetary. I had a really nice walk around the lakes but we only had 1.5hours at the glen so I had to walk extra fast so that I could get as much in as I could. After Glendalough we headed for a drive through the mountains.

The mountains are full of bogs. If a person tried to walk on these bogs they would immediately sink into the bog and never get out again... on the positive side the peat in the bog would preserve the body perfectly. You can tell when the land is a bog when heather and bog cotton grows on top. It was really interesting to learn that because of the weather changes the yellow grose flowers that shouldn't be in bloom at the same time as heather was actually blooming for the second time that season so the bogs were covered in purple heather and yellow grose.

The road up the mountain was originally built by the British while they were fighting the Irish. They built the road because the Irish kept attacking them as they tried to make it up the mountain. They stupidly decided that it would be easier to get to the Irish at the top of the mountain if they built a road not realizing that if they built a road and came up using the road they would pretty much become sitting ducks because the Irish would always be able to see them coming. The British ended up giving up on the mountain and retreated back to Dublin city. The Irish began to have a saying of "life outside the Pale", that there was freedom living in the mountains that couldn't be found in the city.

The road that winds up the mountain was also the location of the Tour de France for 2003 or 2004 (I can't remember which one). The road has to be redone twice a year because the bog land it is on top of is constantly moving. The Wicklow mountains was also the filming site for Braveheart, excaliber, King Arthur, and Ps I love you. We even stopped at the bridge were the scene of Hillary Swank wandering around lost is filmed.

Overall it was a lovely day tour through the mountains although I would like to be able to go back and spend more time walking around Glendalough.

---