20 March, 2009 (Fri) - Dublin, Ireland - Day 9

Today, I will be joining a day tour to the Wicklow and Glendalough. I met the 2 SG girls at the breakfast hall where they were joined with 3 other guy friends also from SG and studying in Cambridge. A brief conversation, we discovered that we were both doing the same tour by the same tour operator. Well, let's see if we will be on the same bus. (again, remember in my dream I did the same tour with the girls?) End up we were on different mini buses (there were 2 mini buses by the same agent today). Our transport for the day is a 24-seater Mercedez Benz midi coach and it is fully-seated today. Martin is our driver cum tour guide for the day and he is a very informative and fun guy. The weather was brilliant today, blue skies and lovely sunshine.

We left the Dublin city, headed for the east coast, traveling along Dublin Bay to Dun Laoghaire, and passing through Dalkey, home to Bono, U2, Enya, Van Morrison, Dalkey is also a heritage town complete with its very own historical castles. We were given a 10mins photo break at the harbour. After that, we stop at the Avoca Handweavers, established since 1723 (Ireland's oldest) for morning coffee/craft shopping/toilet for another half an hour. I wasn't interested in the shopping / the coffee, so after using the bathroom and a quick round inside the shop, I went out to sit in the garden, enjoying the morning sun, waiting for the rest. After that break, we went inland, heading west to the wilds of Wicklow Mountains.

Wicklow Mountains National Park covers part of a mountain range that extends over most of County Wicklow on the east coast of Ireland. The upper slopes and rounded peaks are blanketed with heath and bog. The open vistas are interrupted only by forestry plantations and the winding mountain roads. Fast-flowing streams descend into the deep lakes of the wooded valleys and continue their course into the surrounding lowlands.

Our first photo stop is at Loch Tay, also known as the Guinness Lake. It is a small but scenic lake set in the Wicklow Mountains in County Wicklow. It lies between the mountains of Djouce and Luggala, and is best viewed from the above, which is what we did! We stopped at the roadside, looking down the steep valley onto the lake. It is simply amazing. The reason why some called it the Guinness Lake is due to the black lake water (viewed from above) edged with a beach of startlingly white sand, imported by the landowners. This combination definitely resembles a pint of the Guinness, hence the name. Quite a number of movies i.e. Braveheart, Excalibur, Michael Collins, Reign of fire, Ballykissangel, King Arthur (2003) and the most reason film, P.S. I Love You was filmed here in the Wicklow Mountains. We also made a photo stop at the bridge where Hillary Swank walked past while she's lost (P.S. I love you), which excites several girls on the bus upon learning this information.

We then passed by Sally Gap, which is 759m above sea level and on to the Military Road. The Military road is quite a narrow and winding road where it is impossible for normal large coaches to navigate through. The views along the tour so far were just simply breathtaking. There were quite a lot of sheep farms that we have passed through and according to Martin, there are 2.5million baby lambs due in the coming months. Already I could see some baby lambs on the farms which were extremely cute. Before breaking for lunch, we stop at a place (forgot the name) and had this amazing view. Looking down we see a stream flowing alongside the woods. Absolutely gorgeous. We then went for lunch at Laragh, meaning "Site (or ruins) of a Building", a small picturesque village in County Wicklow. There is a pub and 2 cafe here and I had a chicken sandwich (€3.40) at Anne's Coffee Shop. After the meal, I still have some time left before the gathering time, so I went walking around the area. I think this is quite a nice place to live in, very peaceful and quiet (except of course for the tour buses that comes in every day at noon).

After the lunch break, we drove another 5mins to arrive at Glendalough, (Irish: Gleann Dá Loch, meaning 'Glen of Two Lakes') is a glacial valley, renowned for its early medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St Kevin, a hermit priest, and destroyed in 1398 by English troops. The two lakes, which gave the valley its name, came into existence thousands of years ago, after the Ice Age, when great deposits of earth and stone were strewn across the valley in the area where the Round Tower now exists. The mountain streams eventually formed a large lake. The Pollanass river spread alluvial deposits across the centre of the lake and created a divide to form the Upper and Lower Lakes. The Glenealo river flows in from the West into the Upper lake which is the larger and deepest of the two lakes.

We were set down at the lower valley and Martin came with us to brief us on some of the important monuments here before leaving us to go explore the area ourselves and then pick us up later at the upper valley carpark. The most famous of all the landmarks in Glendlough is the Round Tower which is built of mica-slate interspersed with granite stands 33 meters above the ground, with an entrance 3.5 meters from the base. It was built almost 1000 years ago by the monks of St. Kevin's monastery. The conical roof had to be replaced in 1876 when it was struck by lightning. The tower originally had six timber floors, connected by ladders. The four stories above entrance level are each lit by a small window; while the top storey has four windows facing the cardinal compass points. The Glendalough round tower was originally built as a bell tower but also served on occasion as store-houses and a place of refuge when the monastery was under attack.

There were several other monuments to see here besides the round tower i.e. the Gateway. The Gateway to the monastic city of Glendalough is one of the most important monuments, now totally unique in Ireland. It was originally two-storied with two fine, granite arches. The antae or projecting walls at each end suggest that it had a timber roof. Inside the gateway, in the west wall, is a cross-inscribed stone. This denoted the sanctuary, the boundary of the area of refuge. The paving of the causeway in the monastic city is still preserved in part but very little remains of the enclosure wall.

Following the path after the gateway, I came to The cathedral, the largest ruin at Glendalough. It is built of stone and is now missing much of the walls and all of the ceiling, but is still a fascinating structure. The nave and antae were built in the 10th century, and a chancel and sacristy were added on in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The chancel arch and east window were finely decorated through many of the stone are now missing. The north doorway to the nave also dates from this period. Under the southern window of the chancel is an aumbry or wall cupboard and a piscina, a basin used for washing the scared vessels.

Next is the Saint Kevin's Church / Kitchen. This stone-roofed building originally had a nave only, with entrance at the west end and a small round-headed window in the east gable. The upper part of the window can be seen above what became the chancel arch, when the chancel (now missing) and the sacristy were added later. The steep roof, formed of overlapping stones, is supported internally by a semi-circular vault. Access to the croft or roof chamber was through a rectangular opening towards the western end of the vault. The church also had a timber first floor. The belfry with its conical cap and four small windows rises from the west end of the stone roof in the form of a miniature round tower.

The monastery is also actually a cemetery and this cemetery only allows burial by relation. This means that you can only be buried here if your family is buried here. A research showed that there are only 7 valid burials left before the cemetery is closed. From the St. Kevin's church, there is a pathway through the woods towards the lower lake. This pathway also links to the upper lake. The view along the pathway is great and the weather today makes it a very nice stroll. As I didn't have much time left, I hurried over to the upper lakes, which has an even more amazing lake scenery. I wished I had more time to spend here at the lakes as it is so gorgeous. Unfortunately it is time to go back to Dublin. On the way back, I was thinking about my little Micra, who had accompanied me in my adventures in UK, giving me absolute freedom to spend as much or as little time at the places visited.

We arrived back in Dublin around 5pm. I went to the Temple Bar area, thinking of taking some night scenes of the famous Dublin bar area. Temple Bar is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey in central Dublin. Unlike the areas surrounding it, Temple Bar has preserved its medieval street pattern, with many narrow cobbled streets. It is promoted as "Dublin's cultural quarter" and has a lively nightlife that is popular with tourists. However I think it'll still take quite some time until the sky turns dark and honestly I'm not 100% comfortable loitering at this bar area after dark. So I dropped the idea and head back to hostel. While resting in the room after dinner and shower, the 2 SG girls came back. So I chatted with them for a while about their life in Cambridge, where I've been to and where I'm going next. It seems that life in Cambridge is pretty tough (at least for their course, in Natural Science). They had lessons and tutorials Mon-Sat and only have Sun left for some relaxation. Wow, can't imagine going through that kind of life again. One of them is on MOE scholarship so she'll become a teacher after she graduated. It's quite nice to have someone to talk to after a while especially when you have something in common.