The Wicklow Way

keenan110

I'm going to be walking the wicklow way with a friend over the summer. We are going to stay in B&B's to cut down on the weight we have to carry. Anyone have any tips or advice on the walk in general?

Thanks

keenan110

Anyone got any advice?
I'm sure someone here must have done it before!

Donny5

keenan110 wrote: »

Anyone got any advice?
I'm sure someone here must have done it before!

I've walked the whole thing; truth be told, it's pretty easy. I've never stayed in hostels or B&Bs, but there's a good few along the route.

Assuming you're going Marley Park to Clonegal, there's a youth hostel at Knockree about 22km in. The next place I know to stay is Oldbridge, about six hours hike on (maybe 25-30km on). Then you can make it to Glendalough in about 2 hours, or Glenmalure in 6. Both have places to stay. After that, there are B&Bs pretty regularly along or near the route, although I don't know much about them.

I'm pretty sure there's a baggage transfer service that will shuffle your gear from B&B to B&B for you, if you don't want to carry your gear. There was a couple of years ago, anyway.

When you get to the end, Clonegal doesn't have any public transport, so you'll have to arrange something or saunter on to Bunclody which has a Bus Éireann stop. There also used to be a taxi service there you could get to bring you to Bunclody from Clonegal.

All in all, without gear and in the summer, you could probably cover the whole thing in 4-5 days, with gear 7-8. I'm planning on doing it myself soon, end-to-end, carrying gear in 7 days. I tried it earlier this year, during the snow, but the weight of winter gear and 7 days food was a bit ambitious. Here's hoping this good weather holds.

If you have more time, you could stay two nights at some of the spots and do some day-hikes up Lug Na Coille or around Lough Dan & Lough Tay. You also walk just above the Powercourt waterfall early on (probably Day 2) and you could detour down into the valley there. Nice scenery when it's not an air crash investigation site.

I don't know if this is the info you want, but if you have other questions, I know the Wicklow Way far more than is healthy, so ask away.

PadraigL

Hi Donny5

Four of us are doing it in August. We hope to do it all in 5 days.
We plan to stay in 2 men tents and carry enough food for a couple of days. Any idea the best places to camp? We would plan to pitch in woods wll away from the roads and close to running streams for boiling water.

Cookie_Monster

The estimates above are a bit generous IMO. With a full gear load it'll take 5 days. Without, probably 4. You'd be covering 22-26km a day with gear and more without. The route itself is very easy. All the peaks are gone

There's Hostels / B&B:

Knockree
Road past Lough dan there are a few
Laragh
Glendalough
Glenmalure
Not too sure after that.

From Glenmalure onwards the walk gets pretty crap, no hills, mainly farmland and road walking

Chazziemann

I would suggest bringing soft runners while walking along the roads...

exaisle

PadraigL wrote: »

Hi Donny5

......close to running streams for boiling water.

The running streams have boiling water? Way cool!

Slogger Jogger

Off topic maybe but have to share...

a team of Boards runners won the Wicklow way relay today. I'll look forward to a nice walk from Glendalough to Glenmalure. Running it today was a bit painful :rolleyes:

keenan110

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Off topic maybe but have to share...

a team of Boards runners won the Wicklow way relay today. I'll look forward to a nice walk from Glendalough to Glenmalure. Running it today was a bit painful :rolleyes:

Fair play to them!:)

Alun

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Off topic maybe but have to share...

a team of Boards runners won the Wicklow way relay today. I'll look forward to a nice walk from Glendalough to Glenmalure. Running it today was a bit painful :rolleyes:

Was down around Tinahely on Saturday and saw a few runners when we were on the WW .. wondered if that was what they were doing.

Slogger Jogger

Alun wrote: »

Was down around Tinahely on Saturday and saw a few runners when we were on the WW .. wondered if that was what they were doing.

That was us. Started at 7am at Kilmashogue. We finished just before 3 at Shillelagh.

Donny5

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

That was us. Started at 7am at Kilmashogue. We finished just before 3 at Shillelagh.

Ha, who had the stretch down at Oldbridge, near Lough Dan? Some fella passed me by as I was taking a break in a field, and he was moving sickeningly fast for my liking.

Slogger Jogger

Donny5 wrote: »

Ha, who had the stretch down at Oldbridge, near Lough Dan? Some fella passed me by as I was taking a break in a field, and he was moving sickeningly fast for my liking.

Could have been one of 30 odd people. 33 teams I think took part.

Donny5

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Could have been one of 30 odd people. 33 teams I think took part.

Wow, he must have been the slowest guy by far, so. I was on the Wicklow Way from 11.30, when I started at Glencree, until sometime that evening when I stopped up near the top of mullacor, and I only saw the one runner. Maybe he was just some nutcase mountain running for a laugh.

By the way, you're all nutcases in my book.

Yeasayer

Chazziemann wrote: »

I would suggest bringing soft runners while walking along the roads...

Very good advice! Fully agree

Cookie_Monster

Yeasayer wrote: »

Very good advice! Fully agree

its one option all right.

A better one is to have a decent pair of hiking runners rather than boots. These are side by side with boots in most shops and essentially have a harder sole than runners to make them more rigid. I have a decent pair and use them on most terrain these days, especially in the summer.

There is little or no terrain on the WW that would need boots over hiking runners. Less ankle support is your only problem.

keenan110

Thanks for the advice guys! Think I'll bring a pair of runners with me for the road sections and Ill wear boots for the rest cause can't really afford to splash out on another pair of shoes at the moment!