The Wicklow Way is a 131 Kilometre long distance trail that crosses the Wicklow Mountains. It runs from Marley Park, Southern Dublin suburb, through County Wicklow, ending in the village of Clonegal.
It is one of the top 10 long distance walks in Ireland and is normally broken down into 6 segments.
I decided to do it backwards and started with:
SEGMENT 6: TINAHELY TO CLONEGAL - 18 Miles
The walk description says most do not do this last segment because most of it is road walking and less interesting than earlier segments. I did this segment because it was closest to Hacketstown and on a day that was supposed to be cloudy, but no rain. 20 minutes into the walk it poured rain and my feet got totally soaked. That said, I was doing better than the runners who go totally lost. The weather brightened and things ended well, but it was a long slog with some beautiful views towards the end. Not really interesting walk, It took about 7 hours, felt pretty good until the very end when my feet were pretty tender....
SEGMENT 5: IRON BRIDGE TO TINAHELY - 13 Miles
I enjoyed coming across sheep along the path as I walked up the hills. Strangely, this is where I also saw a car at the top of a field in a place where it shouldn't have been. It was pretty annoying when they started beeping their horn for no reason. Nearby was a grave with a celtic cross monument, but no information about it. Can't wait to try the next segment....
SEGMENT 3 - GLENDALOUGH TO IRON BRIDGE - 17.5 miles
This segment passes the half way marker.
I had higher hopes for this segment, but it did have some highlights. Glendalough is a beautiful area and doing this on a Tuesday meant fewer people around. There were some wonderful views and a number of waterfalls, but no wildlife and the walk tended to wind through forestry area where harvesting had been done, so lots of stumps. That said, I did enjoy one section walking through the forest on the "bog boards" - in this case they probably raise you above a lot of water cascading down the rocks in the rain. There was another section, also on bog boards, that took you on a saddle between two hill tops to a beautiful view of the valley on the other side. One of the highlights was stopping at the Glendalow Pub for ice cream half way through.
There was also a section that walks along so you can see down a valley where on the other side you can see something akin to crop circles. There were 2 bothy, one at the beginning and end of this segment, built to commemorate the Trail's anniversary. Especially difficult in this segment was altitude increase of 1900 feet straight up to the saddle, then straight down to the valley floor - 3 times, no switchbacks....
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