Ireland day 1258. Sunday 09 March 2025- Two Glens

Today’s summary	Got up early and picked up two local Club friends then drove down to Laragh. Completed a 12km circular walk round Glendalough and Glendasan. Quite busy but managed to get away from the crowds in the high path above the green lane. An excellent spring day. Val returned while I was out so we had lamb casserole in the evening and watched some TV. Great to have her back!
Today’s weather	A perfect early spring day with no rain and hazy sunshine all day. Light north easterly wind. Appx 12c

Today’s overview location (The red mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Laragh and Two Glens DWC

Commentary

Today was a rare day. For a start, the weather was as near perfect as it can be at this time of year in Ireland. Sunny, dry and, perhaps most important of all, no wind.

Secondly, there was a “medium” Club walk scheduled down in Laragh, which is always beautiful, whatever the weather.

And third, Val was coming back and I was really looking forward to seeing her again.

So I got up quite early – about seven – and prepared myself to be out of the door at nine am, armed with packed lunch and waterproofs. I drove down to Portmarnock and Donaghmede to pick up a couple of friends and we were in the free car park in Laragh by 11. Though we did stop off for very nice coffee and scones – along with a million cyclists and bikers – in the Glendalough café on the way.

There were sixteen walkers today and we completed a fabulous 12km loop walk, taking in both the Glendalough and Glendasan valleys. We paused for lunch on what I know now is the medial moraine between the former Glendalough and Glendasan glaciers, before pressing on down to the shores of the Upper Lough.

Another stop at the coffee caravan in Glendalough saw us refreshed for the final leg of the circuit, back to Laragh. A few of the group headed straight back down the Green Road, but ten of us clambered up to the high level track that runs parallel to the green way, on the slopes of Derrybawn mountain. We discovered that the path up alongside the Poulanass waterfall had been closed by landslides and tree falls, but there were easy diversions on the broad track to both the left and the right of the waterfall.

Eventually we made it back to the cars at just after 4pm. It felt like we’d had a very good day out and at 12km it was towards the longer end of the normal “medium” walk length.

A quick drive back and the friends were duly dropped off and I met up again with Val in the flat at about 6pm. It’s great to have her back!

The rest of the evening was spent fairly quietly. I finished off some more lamb casserole and Val got on with some sewing. Then we watched another episode of “Mad Men” and got an early night. A great day all round!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


By the Glendasan river, heading a short distance upstream before turning to the left to cross over in to Glendalough	Climbing over the spur from Glendasan back into Glendalough

At our lunch spot on the medial between the two Glens. Nice to be able to just sit without getting soaked or wind-blasted!	Our route up the Poulanass waterfall was thwarted by a landslide – but there are good alternative paths up either side

The spur going from top left towards bottom right, behind the trees, is the medial moraine between the former Glendalough and Glendasan glaciers	Derrybawn bridge. A beautiful spot but you can only either walk over it or gaze at it from afar – it’s on private land and there’s a sturdy steel fence stopping you getting close

By “Charles De Gaulle’s Seat” high above the Upper Lough