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We spent most of our anniversary day visiting and hiking in Glendalough. |
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| The ancient monastic settlement at Glendalough, founded by St. Kevin in 478, is one of the most significant in Ireland. The Priest's House (a burial site for local priests) is shown above. |
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| The most recognized landmark at the monastic settlement -- the Round Tower, surrounded by aged gravestones. |
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| A view back at the Upper Lake from the farthest point of the walk we did, called the Spinc and Glenealo Valley walk. (Spinc comes from the Irish "An Spinc" meaning "pointed hill".) The trail starts with a 380m climb, much of which is via over 600 wooden steps. Needless to say, we were quite tired by the time we got to the top! |
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| Jim can make fun of the "dangerous cliffs ahead" sign at this point -- because we've already been over them. While they weren't very dangerous on the day we did them, they would be in wet weather! |
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| Glendalough (or Gleann dá Lough in Irish) means Valley of the Two Lakes, which you can see quite well here. The monastic settlement is behind the first small lake. You can see the wooden plank trail that you walk along the cliffs to the far right. It was a tiring hike, but the views were well-worth the effort it took to get to them! |
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| Jim at the start of the over 600 steps we had to climb. It was very hot the day we did the climb -- thank goodness we wore hiking pants that could change into shorts! |
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