Glendalough

Where it sits. Glendalough is a glacial valley in the eastern Wicklow Mountains, about fifty kilometres south of Dublin, holding two lakes strung along its floor between steep sides of granite and mica-schist. The Upper Lake sits in the head of the valley beneath the cliffs of Lugduff and the Spinc; the Lower Lake, smaller and shallower, lies below it, and the monastic ruins stand on the drier ground between the lake outflow and the village of Laragh. The name means the valley of the two lakes. The whole thing was cut by ice, which is why the sides are so straight and the floor so flat, and the Poulanass stream drops into it in a series of falls on the southern flank.

The story behind it. St Kevin withdrew here in the sixth century, reputedly living first in a cave above the Upper Lake still called St Kevin's Bed, and the community that grew around him became one of the major monastic centres of early medieval Ireland, with pilgrim roads running in from every direction. What survives is exceptional. The round tower stands about thirty metres high, its conical cap rebuilt in 1876 using the original stones found inside; the gateway at the entrance to the monastic city is the only surviving example of a monastic gatehouse in Ireland, with an antae and a cross-inscribed slab that marked the boundary of sanctuary. The cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul is the largest ruin; St Kevin's Church, its stone roof and little belfry giving it the nickname of St Kevin's Kitchen, is the most complete. Reefert Church stands among trees near the Upper Lake, and Temple-na-Skellig can only be seen from the water. Vikings raided repeatedly, English forces burned the settlement in 1398, and the diocese was absorbed into Dublin in 1214, but pilgrimage continued into the nineteenth century.

On screen. Glendalough sits in the middle of Ireland's busiest film county without being a set itself, and the distinction is worth being precise about. John Boorman, who lived a few miles down the valley at Annamoe, shot Excalibur (1981) almost entirely in Wicklow: Arthur draws the sword from the stone at Childers Wood near Roundwood, ten minutes north of here, and Lancelot's duel was filmed at the waterfall on the Powerscourt estate. Braveheart (1995) worked the high ground to the west, building an English stockade at the Coronation Plantation near the Sally Gap and staging Wallace's escape at the Blessington Lakes. Vikings (2013–2020) was made entirely in Ireland from Ashford Studios, twenty minutes east, with longship sequences filmed on the water at Luggala and Poulaphouca. P.S. I Love You (2007) shot its Irish half in County Wicklow. Glendalough itself appears chiefly as itself — in documentary, in tourism film and in a long line of Irish television — and the valley's real contribution to all of the above is the crew base, the landscape and the road network that made Wicklow a production centre in the first place.

What you actually see today. Two car parks serve the valley: the free one by the visitor centre at the monastic city, and a paid one at the Upper Lake. From the Upper Lake the marked routes climb quickly. The White Route, usually called the Spinc, runs up more than six hundred railway-sleeper steps beside the Poulanass waterfall to a boardwalk along the cliff edge with the lake directly below, then loops back past the ruins of the Miners' Village at the head of the valley, where lead and zinc were worked from the early nineteenth century until the 1950s. It is about eleven kilometres and takes four hours. Shorter green and blue routes circle the lakes on the flat. Sika deer, introduced to Wicklow in the nineteenth century, are common at dusk, and the valley sides carry oak woodland that is among the best remaining in the east of Ireland.

Getting there and timing. Glendalough is about an hour and a quarter from central Dublin by the N11 and R755, or by daily coach from the city centre. It is one of the most visited places in Ireland and summer weekends fill both car parks by mid-morning. The monastic city, the visitor centre and the path along the Lower Lake are level and surfaced; everything above the Upper Lake car park involves steps and rough ground. Early autumn gives the best combination — colour on the oak, water in the falls, and space on the boardwalk.