a very special place...

I'd only scheduled a short walk for today, so I'd have lots of time to look round Glendalough.

The walk itself was uneventful, except that when I was walking along the top of paddock hill, in a world of my own, I suddenly found that there were two hares right in front of me. I hadn't noticed them, and they must have been so immersed in sporting with each other that they hadn't noticed me either. They wheeled away from me without stopping, but they must only have been about 10 yards away, which is really unusual for hares. They usually just sit on the horizon looking at you, then run away just to be on the safe side.

Anyway, pretty quickly (6 miles doesn't take long to walk), Glendalough and the valley it's in came into view...and it was stunning. Those Irish saints weren't stupid, when they decided to set up a monastery in the middle of nowhere, they made sure they had the best spots!

I made my way down, and took a look round the visitor center first. This labyrinth clearly isn't very Christian...

The monastery site itself is in pretty good shape after a thousand years in an Irish valley in the middle of nowhere. It has a real air of calm about it, and you can almost taste the clear air in the pcitures.

This is a view over most of the complex. The high tower is something uniquely Irish, not existing in that form outside the Celtic church. There's no doorway any more, which just makes it look all the more mysterious.

This is the Cathedral. Not what we'd think of a such these days, but that was it. It was a spartan place, of cource, despite the beauty of the valley.

Walking past the main site, there are great views up the valley, plus some more isolated sites, and even a very classy waterfall.

This would be the place I'd most recommend visiting, from what I've seen in Ireland. Ideally, with hindsight I should have planned to stay a couple of days and use it as a walking centre.

written by

martin_b on April 25, 2007 from Glendalough, Ireland

from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland

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