Glendalough

​A few days after arriving back in Dublin from Scotland I dragged my sister on a trip to the Wicklow Mountains just a bus ride out of Dublin. If you are visiting Dublin, I highly recommend doing a tour of this area, we did a Collins Day Tour and had an awesome tour guide who actually made me want to write something on Trip Advisor, it was that good! Our first stop was Glendalough, an old monastic town in a little valley, but the pictures don’t do it justice. 

We were given an hour to explore, and my sister and I walked down a trail until we came across an area along the river with a bunch of random ribbons and other things tied to a few trees. There was a well with steps leading down into it. There were pictures of people, saying R.I.P. so-in-so, I found a clementine…. A ribbon with the word hope tied to a branch. There was something beautiful but also eerie about it, as there was no sign or anything that explained the meaning of it.

I found out later, that this spot is not on most tourist maps, so I feel very lucky and privileged to have found it. It’s called St. Kevin’s Well. People make pilgrimages here, and it is said that baptisms have taken place here. There was definitely something magical about this place, and if you ever want to find it, just walk down the path in the opposite direction of the “Upper Lake” until you see the colors entangled with the green of the trees. After that we continued through the mountain range, the views were spectacular… we saw lots of sheep. We were also able to stop at a beautiful lookout spot to take pictures.

Click below to read about the next stop on our day trip:

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Kilkenny