Our first stop after our night in Kilkenny was to drive to the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin in Ireland. We would be stopping off at Glendalough Monastic City, a large complex here, before continuing our drive into the mountains. Glendalough is one of the most important sites in Ireland, and it was founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin. Many of the buildings that we saw date from the 10th-11th centuries.
Before we arrived at Glendalough, we stopped off at a couple of places in the Wicklow Mountains on the way in order to take some photographs. We also passed through a small town called 'Hollywood', which was nothing much more than a few sheep grazing on a hillside with the 'HOLLYWOOD' letters on the hill above. We were driving, so I could not get a good photograph of it, but it made me laugh.
After Hollywood, we entered Wicklow Gap and pulled over to get some photographs. We were not far from Glendalough. We saw some picturesque views over the mountains, including a small lake formed at the base of the mountain. We read a sign here that pointed out the ancient pilgrimage road to Glendalough, called "St. Kevin's Way".
We arrived at Glendalough by mid-morning, and it was already busy with a couple of tour buses. However, we managed to find a place to park in order to explore the area. The locals were already out in force, selling souvinirs and food from concession stands and singing their traditional songs in front of the large stone gateway entrances into the Monastic City.
The first architectural feature that I noticed is the Round Tower. The round tower contained the bells to gather the monks together for prayers. The day before, we had climbed the Round Tower at Kilkenny, which is one of only two round towers opened to the public that can be climbed in Ireland. This particular round tower is a hundred feet high and used to have six levels made from wooden floorboards, which no longer exist. The round tower was built between 900-1200. The entrance would have been above ground level, and a ladder would have been placed in order to climb to enter (and then pulled up) so that enemies could not enter.
I saw some excellent views over the mountains from the graveyard.
The next stop was to visit the cathedral, which was the largest structure at Glendalough and would have been one of the largest churches in Ireland at its time.
The priest's house is a small building in the middle of the grave area.
We also got some beautiful views of this church, which was locked but appeared to be in good condition.
After we had seen enough, we headed out through the main gateway. Unusually, the gateway is a double-gateway, and this is the only example of such existing. The second gateway did have a tower built on it. The gateway would have been built between 900-1200. Just inside the gateway is a stone with a cross carved into it.
There is a visitor centre nearby, but we actually failed to notice the signs for this and did not visit. We left to continue on our exploration of the Wicklow Mountains. Not far away, we came across a beautiful waterfall named Glenmacnass Waterfall.
The road winded around to the top of the waterfall, where we were awarded with beautiful views. We managed to find a place to pull over to get some photographs.
We continued on our journey through Wicklow Mountains (Sally Gap) in order to visit another waterfall - Powerscourt Waterfall. Keep checking back to see photographs of our visit.
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