Mountains, Dublin

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The Wicklow Mountains are a popular destination for tourists in Ireland. They have smooth, round summits ground down by glaciation, and consist mainly of granite. They are impressive to look at - if y ou are into your landscapes this will definatly be for you. If not it will still impress anyways. Be careful with small children around the areas though, its easy for them to fall over with all the uneven land, lakes, rivers, valleys - not that I ever did...The summit stands at 324m (1,123ft ) at the Sugarloaf Mountain which is also a noted landmark in north-east County Wicklow.

On our Wicklow Mountains Tour we drove through beautiful landscape past the Blessington lakes to Glendalough. Because of the inaccessibility of the mountains, they were an ideal hideaway for the opponents of the English regimen. A military road has been built around 1800, but the mountains are still sparsely populated. Very very beautiful indeed!!

Walking in the Dublin Mountains
Dublin is blessed to lie at the foothills of such an amenity - the Dublin Mountains form the border between Counties Dublin and Wicklow and offer some fantastic opportunities for walking, cycling and driving trips. They are accessible through the local suburban bus routes and can be reached within half an hour. I have several favourite spots there, the town of Enniskerry, the Pine Forest, and probably the most spectacular of all in terms of scenery, the walk along the old Military Road. Along the route you'll come across the Hellfire Club - a meeting place in the 1700s for those amongst the gentry who walked a darker religious road than others. One can still imagine the horses parked outside on moonlit nights as their masters engaged in nefarious activities within (probably just a big boozing session, but sure who was to know!) :o) For those in cars, it is well worth one's while to take a detour around the mountain roads on their way south into Wicklow, heading through the Sally Gap en route to touristic Glendalough, Powerscourt House et al.!