Glendalough

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You will find this introduction useful to place Glendalough in the overall geography and history of County Wicklow. First off, to whet your appetite, here is a wonderful video produced for Wicklow County Tourism showing you a little flavour of County Wicklow.

Glendalough is situated in the heart of County Wicklow, which is known as the Garden of Ireland.

The County gets its name from the principal town in the County, Wicklow Town. This name comes from the early Viking settlers in the late 8^th and early 9^th Century but there is a little confusion among historians whether the origin of the name comes from Viking Alo (Viking’s Beacon) or Vikings Meadow. Whatever the source, the name Wicklow has been passed down through time.

In Irish the County is known as Chill Mhantáin (pronounced kill man-tawn). When St. Patrick returned to Ireland in 432a.d. as a Bishop he landed at a small beach in Wicklow town called Travilahawk. The local chieftain spotted the approaching ship and he sent his followers out to persuade St. Patrick and his monks to leave. Stones were thrown from the headland and during this incident, one of St. Patrick’s monks teeth were knocked out. The name of the monk is not known, but he became known as Manntan (Gubby). Some years later he returned to build a church in Wicklow Town. The place then became known as Cill Mhantáin (Gubby’s Church), the name of County Wicklow in Irish (Gaelic).

County Wicklow itself ranks as the 17^th largest county out of the 32 counties on the island of Ireland and has an area of 2,024 square kilometres (or 781 square miles). To the east of the County along the seaboard of the Irish Sea lie the most populated towns of Bray, Arklow and Wicklow Town.

The largest area of the County is the central and western region of mountains, rivers, lakes and valleys. This entire region is over 500 feet above sea level. In total, approximately one quarter of the county (about 500 square km/200 square miles) is 1,000 feet above sea level. The biggest geographic feature of the County are the Wicklow mountains. These granite mountains are the most extensive mountain range in Ireland and they run all the way down through the County and actually start in Dublin. They are part of the largest mass of granite in Northwestern Europe.

The highest point of the Wicklow mountain rage is Lugnaquilla which rises to 3,039 sq. feet. The mountain range contains many great valleys, the most famous of which is Glendalough.

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