Lugala Days

If you want to head out to the wilds of Wicklow but not meet every Tom, Dick and Dublin Harry then Lugala and the Knocknacloghoge walk is a pretty safe, non-crowded one to do.

Park your car at the black gate seen here, go through the gate and just start walking down, down, down...... through the old Guinness estate, by all the deer and over little bridges and through great big, tall trees. It takes two hours to Lough Tay and back but bring a picnic, it's gorgeous down there.

That's an old scouts cottage I think........

OK, so the full route is here.

And here's what you'll discover along the way.

Looks like Canada doesn't it? Oh yeah it's where they filmed parts of the Vikings with Gabriel Byrne, I'll show you the lake when we get there - it's at the end. This is one of the many bridges you'll cross. See, not a sinner?

And after this bridge you'll head along this green path....... 

And this is where you'll see the fields of wild deer.......

You'll eventually come to the scouts cottage (let's just call it that).......

Before arriving at Lough Tay where Vikings is being filmed.

Up to the right there is where the big, fancy Guinness house is nowadays. Climb Djouce and you'll see it from above.

After all that exertion, we chilled by the river with all the midges.........

And had our picnic...... 

Before heading home the way we came past the fields with all the deer and rabbits.......

Glendalough and the Spinc

Another spectacular glacial valley in Ireland that is the well trodden is Glendalough in Co Wicklow.

That photo was taken really early one Saturday or Sunday morning, two summers ago and it turned out to be a scorchio day so me and my pal Susan even ended up going for a dip in the little rock pools on our way back.

But the rest of the snaps were taken on a recent and dull, wet and very windy, average Irish day.

This is the route we took, the White Route http://www.wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie/walkingtrails.html, which starts at this little waterfall....

Before beginning the steep ascent up these sleepers......

You go up 600 of these and then come out on top of the valley and walk all along the top of the cliff until it starts to meet a river...... and you come to this bridge.....

If you run out of water worry not you can have some of the fresh stream water to quench your climbing thirst, well we drank it anyway and we're still alive.....

After you cross the bridge you'll have a view something like this.....

See the lake in the background? That's where you'll have come from.......

You'll keep walking all along this big, powerful flow of water, it had been raining heavily, so it was a fearsome flow the day we went.....

Keep descending and just as you arrive on the flat you'll get to the old mining village.......

Here we are exploring after our big climbing expedition.........

You'll then walk back along the shore of the lake to the car park. It costs 2 euro to park so have change. It's really not that tough of a walk at all, the initial ascent is a bit hard going at first but the rest is a doodle and the views are fantastic all along the way. Walking very fast and without a break you can do it in 2 hours but just taking it handy it'll take 3.

The Secret Swimming Spot

Few places are sacred anymore especially around The Pale. But there is one little place that isn't that well known about and there's a unspoken agreement amongst its users that we shall never name it's name in writing, you are allowed bring a friend, but never go on about the place too much in public.

It looks like this.....

Well that's it all the way down there........ I'm sure the pictures will give it away but anyway..... in the winter/spring/autumn it's deserted bar the presence of a few die-hard fans and on a blistering hot day, like this summer, it's packed :( Word gets out.

See them all there? Ok so it's in Killiney, Dublin, but no it's not White Rock. On a rough day it's pretty rough. Wouldn't be hanging around here or going for a dip on my own on one of these days....

The swell is very strong and because you don't walk in and walk out...... you have to jump in from one of these places......

It can be pretty tricky to get back out of the water even on a calm day........ like this......

Take note sea swimming enthusiasts, when you do figure out how to get here, there's no sun here in the evenings, so it's best swam at during the date. Also check the tide tables, you'll need lots of water and finally, sometimes, only very very very rarely, there are jelly fish here. But saying that, I've never seen any.

The Gap of Dunloe

The Gap of Dunloe is really special place.

 Years ago my mum and Dad were there off having a stroll and there's a picture of my Mum sitting on a rock and she's a good 5 months pregnant. My older sister having never been there in her entire life ended up getting married in the Gap of Dunloe. That was her in the tummy in the pic and that photo showed up about a month before the wedding. To the present........

Bring rain gear, it can start pouring rain here at the drop of a 1 cent coin. Me and Neil went here last summer, well we went to Killarney on our summer holidays, and set off from Kate Kearney's Cottage where we parked the car. We got absolutely soaked, but we didn't care, and kept on walking.

Look at how close all those clouds are? Walking through the gap imagine, when you see no service on the iPhone, what it was like two million years ago when a glacier lived there.

 Leaving from Kate Kearney's you'll keep the river and streams to your right and come across a few lakes on your way. Just keep walking straight.

And don't forget to look up....... there are loads of streams running down the sides of the mountain......

It's not just all nature though because if you keep on walking you should come across some derelict little houses. Imagine living all the way up here on your own back when there was no electricity or Wi-Fi.

Easy enough now to see why the lads moved on..........

Keep on keeping on as they say and you'll get to this lake......

Look to the foreground and you'll notice that the gap has started to narrow now......

We got as far as here and turned back, we were truly drenched. But were refreshed after some afternoon tea in Aghadoe (think it was less than a tenner for this.....)

And we got all warm, dry and cosy, looking out at this.......

The lake we would have arrived at had we completed our walk.

Cliffs of Moher

I reached the ripe old age of 27 before I ever got to see The Cliffs of Moher up close and personal.

I'd seen them from my friend's bedroom window when I was visiting her in West Clare once and I had seen the crazy surfers ride a ginormous wave near the cliffs in that movie Waveriders. Having been on my bucket list and only living a few hundred miles east of them, I got in the car and headed west.

First of all we drove to the harbor in Doolin and jumped on a boat (fishing trawler) to get right up under the rugged faces of Ireland's most visited site.

This little sea stack had been created after years and years of those big Atlantic waves eating away at the coastline. And then, having seen it from sea level, we decided to drive up to the big car park (you have to pay in now) and check the cliffs out from above.

That's what the sea stack looks like from all the way up here. Here's another shot of it.........

Then if you walk to the left of the main tourist centre (you'll know what I mean when you get there) you'll be brought along a decent enough walk and be able to get right up to the edge of the cliff face. It's actually scary Mary and can be extremely windy so you really do need to have your wits about you.

Look you can see the path there if you look to the top of the photo......... but you can equally go right of the tourist centre and it's a bit calmer wind wise here because you're not as close to the edge in most part. You get better angles for photos on this side too.

A Day in Dun Laoghaire

A Sunday well spent brings a week of content.......... Knocking the most out of a Sunday right up until bedtime sets you up nicely for the week ahead.

My mix is getting good decent time with peeps I love, getting outdoors, amusing myself with something new and interesting and getting re-excited about life, just a good recharge.

One sunny Sunday there two week's ago me and Neil headed out to Dun Laoghaire. The sun was splitting the stones and we wanted to be near the fresh sea air but not on the beach.

We parked up and headed straight for the pier.....




I lovvvvvvve the stillness of water on a lovely balmy day when it's all glass-like. There was a fella at the end of the pier playing in his banjo and as my dad would say...... 'you'd think you were in the south of France.'

Next stop was the People's Park for the big food market. If any foodie is looking to bring their product to the market this is as good a place as any to get going. It's an institution at this stage and queues abound with weekly regulars. There are falafel wraps, pulled pork sambos, noodle salads all to be eaten there and then and then there are goods to be bought and consumed at home. Nobo is a new-comer to the market and is a very cool newbie at that - a dairy free ice cream made here in Ireland.




Neil, my carnivore boyfriend, got himself a very tasty burger from the Irish charcoal company and it was dished up with fresh peppers and baby leaf lettuce. Queues here were sizeable.







I was parching with the summer thirst and located a sugar free cool lemonade for myself that was sweetened with honey and loaded with mint leaves. Oh the quench of it.





After our refreshment we went for a good auld mindless browse and happened upon this cool bookseller.





We chilled out for a while at the fountain and the dj and did some top notch people watching.










All before getting some groceries from the local organic vegetable sellers. We got spinach and kale for the green juices for the week and some organic rhubarb to make a stab at Nessa Robins strawberry and rhubarb tart.