This tour was honestly my favorite part of my entire trip! You may be thinking ‘what a weird and random tour to go on’ but one of my girlfriends recommended that I visit the Wicklow Mountains and I said sure, why not. So, while staying in Dublin I took a tour of Kilkenny, Glendalough, and the Wicklow Mountains and it was definitely worth it!
The tour company I chose was Wild Rover Tours and I selected the Kilkenny, Wicklow Mountains, and Glendalough Day Trip from Dublin. Some of the highlights were the Kilkenny, Glendalough, and holding a baby lamb at a working sheep farm.
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Kilkenny
We boarded our large coach bus at 8:30am and drove 1.5 hours to the city of Kilkenny. We had 2.5 hours to explore this charming city and the tour gave us an option of going on a free 45-minute guided tour of the city. I am so glad I decided on the guided tour because I saw and learned so much! We walked by Kilkenny Castle, Kyteler’s Inn, the 3rd oldest pub in Ireland built in 1324, Smithwick’s Brewery, and St. Canice’s, a gorgeous cathedral. I loved taking the guided tour because it gave me a great background of the city and wonderful fun facts.
Kilkenny was our “lunch spot” but I walked back to Kyteler’s Inn to just grab a pint. Since St. Patrick’s Day was the next day, Kilkenny was dressed up and festive! There were marching bands parading around the streets and the atmosphere was electric.
Glendalough
After leaving Kilkenny, we journeyed up through the Wicklow Mountains to the glacial valley of Glendalough. We were given a great 30-minute tour of Glendalough’s Monastic city and had the rest of the 1.5 hours to ourselves to explore. I decided to do the 2-mile roundtrip hike to the Lower and Upper Lakes. It was absolutely stunning and this walk is what made my trip! There were multiple waterfalls and streams along the maintained walking path and the scenery was so peaceful.
There was also a little food cart by the visitor center so I ordered a cheeseburger and a hot chocolate, since I opted not to eat in Kilkenny to spend more time exploring the city.
Working Sheep Farm
After boarding the bus, we drove 5 miles up the road to a working sheep farm. We were given a great demonstration of a Border Collie rounding up some sheep and they took us to their baby lamb barn to hold the babies! They were so stinkin’ cute and soft!
We arrived back in Dublin at 6:15pm, which still gave us plenty of time to shop and get ready for St. Patrick’s Day. If you have time, I would definitely recommend this tour because the scenery is stunning!
Until next time,
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