Wicklow Way 6 Day Walking Holiday

Your Wicklow week begins here. Settle in slowly.

Make your way to Glenmalure — one of Wicklow's wildest and most dramatic glacial valleys, and your home for the first night. A long U-shaped valley carved by ancient ice, the Avonmore River threading along its floor and steep mountain escarpments rising sharply on either side. We send detailed travel instructions in your pre-departure pack. The easiest way in is a private transfer from Dublin or Dublin Airport, which we can arrange as an optional extra — just ask when you book. Alternatively, the train from Dublin Connolly to Rathdrum (about 70 minutes) combined with a short taxi ride up into the valley works well.

Glenmalure is remote by Wicklow standards — there is no village here in the usual sense, just the valley, the mountains, and the lodge. Your accommodation is waiting, your welcome pack is on the table, and the rest of the day is yours.

Use the afternoon to stretch your legs along the valley floor — a gentle stroll upstream along the river needs no navigation, just follow the water into the hills. The glacial scenery is immediate and impressive: a real taste of what the next few days hold. Come back to the lodge for dinner as the mountains settle into evening. Tomorrow the walking begins properly.

After breakfast, your walk begins right from your doorstep — one of the privileges of starting a week in Glenmalure. The route climbs immediately out of the valley's shelter, up through a pine forest and onto the open flank of Mullacor.

This is the quiet Wicklow. For two hours you're on open mountain with nothing but wind, distance and the sound of your own boots — the kind of walking that makes the hills feel enormous. The ridge is broad and well-waymarked, with views north to the ridges you'll be crossing later in the week and east toward the Irish Sea in good visibility.

The descent to Glendalough is one of the great arrival moments in Irish hiking. Forest gives way, the Upper Lake appears below, then the Lower Lake, and finally the round tower of the monastic city rising above the trees. You walk the last kilometre through the ruins themselves — twelve centuries of Irish history underfoot — before dropping into Laragh and your B&B. Go back to the monastic site after dinner when the day-visitors have left. The light at that hour is something you'll remember.

Today you walk north on the Wicklow Way itself, leaving from your own doorstep in Laragh. The path climbs steadily out of the valley through oak and birch woodland before breaking onto the open flank of Paddock Hill — heather moorland, granite outcrops, and big sky in every direction.

This stretch is the quiet heart of the Wicklow Mountains — the part walkers talk about when they come home. You'll cross Oldbridge and skirt the edge of Lough Dan below you to the west, its dark waters sitting in their own private bowl of mountain. The descent into Roundwood winds through birch and bracken, with the village appearing as you come round the shoulder of the last hill.

Roundwood claims to be Ireland's highest village — 240 m above sea level, with a decent pub and a famous bakery. We drive you back to Laragh for the night, so you sleep in the same bed and wake to the same Glendalough view you've been getting used to.

The day most people mark on the calendar. A circular walk from Glendalough — straight up the waterfall at Poulanass, onto the Spinc ridge above the Upper Lake, along the long wooden boardwalk that traces the cliff edge for nearly two kilometres, and then back down the Miners' Road past the ruined miners' village at the head of the valley.

The Spinc boardwalk is one of the most photographed trails in Ireland. With the valley falling away to your left — the Upper Lake several hundred metres straight down, the monastic city shrinking to matchstick ruins further out — and the open sky above, it is the kind of walk that makes you stop every few minutes to look. Do that. It earns it.

The descent along the Miners' Road is gentle and cooling, following the valley floor back past the lake with the cliff line you've just walked now towering overhead. You'll be back in Laragh for a late lunch, with the rest of the afternoon free for a short stroll, a pint in the garden, or a nap with the window open. Tomorrow is the big one.

After breakfast we drive you a short way past Roundwood to the Oldbridge / Lough Dan trail crossing — a few kilometres north of the village, where the Wicklow Way leaves the forestry behind and the proper mountain section begins. From there you head north across the open plateau, climbing steadily toward Djouce Mountain (725 m) with Lough Tay — the Guinness Lake — dropping into view below you as you reach the final ridge.

Djouce's shoulder is the moment the whole trip comes together. Dublin Bay opens up to the north, the Sugar Loaf stands sharp in the middle distance, Bray Head juts into the sea beyond, and somewhere in the ridges behind you is the Glendalough Valley where you've been sleeping all week. Pause here. Have a biscuit. You earned this.

The descent is long but gentle — off Djouce onto White Hill, down the famous long boardwalk across the blanket bog, past Powerscourt Waterfall (Ireland's tallest) viewpoint, and into Crone Wood as the oak and ash close in around you. Enniskerry village appears at the end of the forest track, and your last night's B&B is a few minutes' walk away. A proper finish.

Boots off. Ireland earned.

A leisurely final morning in Enniskerry — no rush, no transfers until you're ready. The village has a great coffee shop for a long breakfast and a wander round Powerscourt Estate is a twenty-minute walk away if you have the time. When you're ready to head back, there are regular buses from Enniskerry to Dublin city centre, and from there an easy connection to the airport; if you'd prefer a private transfer to the airport or your hotel, we're happy to arrange one as an optional add-on — just ask.

Most walkers spend the last hour going back over Day 4's boardwalk and Day 5's summit moment, already making plans for the Dingle Way or the Kerry Way next year. We'll be here when you're ready.