Glendalough Conditions

mruser2014

Hi all
Going to do the white route in Glendalough on Saturday morning. What are the conditions like on it at the moment?
Last time I did it was the Autumn.
Thanks

Halloween Jack

Hi,

we've been up in the hills in wicklow every weekend this year, havent been up in the glenealo valley itself, but conditions in general in the area have been pretty wet underfoot but generally fine.

Would bring gaiters if you have them and obviously good boots.

mruser2014

Thanks. I will bring appropriate footwear and see how it is. Will start on the Miners road and go from there. I presume the cliffs will be the worst but a good dry few weeks so mean its a lot better.

Halloween Jack

mruser2014 wrote: »

Thanks. I will bring appropriate footwear and see how it is. Will start on the Miners road and go from there. I presume the cliffs will be the worst but a good dry few weeks so mean its a lot better.

Forgot to mention, we did the spinc/mullacor/derrybawn circuit in january and it was fine underfoot for the most part, could be an option?

Alun

Just a heads up that there's a chance of some sleety wintry showers on Saturday. The high ground above the footbridge to the start of the Spinc proper can be pretty unpleasant in those conditions. The whole of the white route is either tracks or boardwalk so no problems with underfoot conditions although the boardwalk is getting a bit worn in places and can be slippery when wet.

Losty Dublin

Sorry to raise this thread from the dead but the plan on Sunday is to head to Glendalough and take on one or two of the walking routes, conditions permitting. It's been ages since I was there so need a quick heads up; is it dog friendly (I'm thinking especially of sheep given that it's lambing season.) and what will be suitable, easy and safe for the bow wows?

Carawaystick

As long as you keep the dogs under control, the npws don't mind. http://www.wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie/Dogs.html

If you can get a spot at the Monastry carpark, it's a flat walk up the green road to the upper lake, and flat along the upper lake to the Miners Village.
You can come back on the walkway north of the Lower lake, to not have a total out&back walk. That's about 7km walk.

Carawaystick

As long as you keep the dogs under control, the npws don't mind. http://www.wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie/Dogs.html

If you can get a spot at the Monastry carpark, it's a flat walk up the green road to the upper lake, and flat along the upper lake to the Miners Village.
You can come back on the walkway north of the Lower lake, to not have a total out&back walk. That's about 7km walk.

Losty Dublin

Carawaystick wrote: »

As long as you keep the dogs under control, the npws don't mind. http://www.wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie/Dogs.html

If you can get a spot at the Monastry carpark, it's a flat walk up the green road to the upper lake, and flat along the upper lake to the Miners Village.
You can come back on the walkway north of the Lower lake, to not have a total out&back walk. That's about 7km walk.

Good man, thanks for that. I knew the parks were cool with dogs in general but I wanted to be sure. That walk was one I was was thinking of; great minds and all that

blacklilly

It's been a few weeks since I did Glendalough last but conditions were very icy on the cliff path, I did the walk alone that day and regretted not having someone with me. For large sections I had to scale up the side of the hill (away from the sleppers) to avoid the ice.

As an aside, I climbed lugnaquilla yesterday, 4-5ft of snow in places made the climb difficult. At a guess I would imagine the cliff section of glendalough to still be icy, in place at least.

Halloween Jack

Went up the spinc yesterday, some lying snow and ice on the sleepers up top.

unkel

blacklilly wrote: »

As an aside, I climbed lugnaquilla yesterday, 4-5ft of snow in places made the climb difficult.

What route did you take?

I can see the snow up on the (Dublin) mountains from my house. I'm regretting I haven't been able to make it out there in the past few weeks!

Alun

Plenty of snow up on Mullaghcleevaun and Silsean/Moanbane too. Went in up to my knees in places coming off the north side of Mullaghcleevaun heading back to Ballynultagh Gap. Nothing much below about 600m though.

Losty Dublin

Well I didn't make it down to Glendalough in the end. We got as far as Roundwood, and seeing cars lose grip on the main street due to ice and snow, decided that it wasn't worth chancing or risking injury or, worse yet, a call out to the Mountain Rescue team.

Instead we settled for a dog run Greystones beach, a picnic in Glen O the Downs and a scoot up to Glencree, basking in the knowledge that St. Kevin's bed will be there another Sunday.

Alun

There was mention of snow in Roundwood today in the weather forum, but apparently there was nothing in Laragh! It's a similar setup weather wise to the snow we had back in 2010 I think where it comes across in 'streamers' across the Irish Sea, and the flow gets disturbed by the Isle of Man, so one area can have snow while a few km further south or north there's nothing at all.

Losty Dublin

Alun wrote: »

There was mention of snow in Roundwood today in the weather forum, but apparently there was nothing in Laragh! It's a similar setup weather wise to the snow we had back in 2010 I think where it comes across in 'streamers' across the Irish Sea, and the flow gets disturbed by the Isle of Man, so one area can have snow while a few km further south or north there's nothing at all.

Mental stuff there, so it was, but we can return there again.

As an aside there seemed to be a bit of action on the Kip today.

blacklilly

unkel wrote: »

What route did you take?

I can see the snow up on the (Dublin) mountains from my house. I'm regretting I haven't been able to make it out there in the past few weeks!

We took the zig zag path at Glenmalure. Although we could see the snow from the foot of it, none of us expected it to be as deep as it was.

unkel

Alun wrote: »

Plenty of snow up on Mullaghcleevaun and Silsean/Moanbane too. Went in up to my knees in places coming off the north side of Mullaghcleevaun heading back to Ballynultagh Gap. Nothing much below about 600m though.

A question for you, Alun or anyone else like yourself very familiar with the Wicklow Mountains. Sometimes in winter the Sally Gap is "closed" according to some websites. Does that mean it is physically closed off or does it just mean going up there is not recommended? Most of the cars I have ever owned are RWD but I am considering buying an all wheel drive car which should get me up any of these roads (will bring snow chains too)

dogmatix

Glendalough was fine yesterday - I drove from Glenealy to Rathdrum to Laragh after 11:30. The roads where a bit slushy after rathdrum and all the way to Laragh but not seriously so. But a lot of cars in Laragh still had snow on them so they must have had a good fall Saturday night or so but by sunday midday it was melting fast. Weather was good in Glendalough - sunny and bright, but cloudy out in Glenealy. Car park at the visitors centre was fairly busy from 12pm.

BarryD

unkel wrote: »

A question for you, Alun or anyone else like yourself very familiar with the Wicklow Mountains. Sometimes in winter the Sally Gap is "closed" according to some websites. Does that mean it is physically closed off or does it just mean going up there is not recommended? Most of the cars I have ever owned are RWD but I am considering buying an all wheel drive car which should get me up any of these roads (will bring snow chains too)

I think that maybe part of the problem. Often when there's any decent fall of snow, there can be 'macho' types with 4WD who think they'll go up to Sallygap. Which maybe fine as long as it's not too deep and the driver can actually see the narrow road. But with snow drifting and so on, people can then get stuck and rather than walk out, they get out their mobiles and call for help etc.

Alun

unkel wrote: »

A question for you, Alun or anyone else like yourself very familiar with the Wicklow Mountains. Sometimes in winter the Sally Gap is "closed" according to some websites. Does that mean it is physically closed off or does it just mean going up there is not recommended? Most of the cars I have ever owned are RWD but I am considering buying an all wheel drive car which should get me up any of these roads (will bring snow chains too)

The road is not physically closed, as you can simply drive around the signs, and often the road looks fine at the bottom, but can get much worse higher up. The higher you get the fewer chances there are of being able to safely turn around and come back. Having said that, the signs often are left up long after any real danger has passed, so people do chance it sometimes when they perhaps shouldn't.

The biggest problem when there's heavy snow is not only the fact that the road can literally disappear, but those vehicles that do make it through create single tracks in the middle that although they make it easier to follow, make it very difficult when passing other vehicles and you have to steer into the heavy snow to the side. The chances of ending up in a ditch are pretty high.

Take a look at this video for example ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bqc1CJTsAo

As for 4x4, snow chains etc. I have full winter tyres on my 2WD car in the winter more as a precaution than anything in case I get caught out (which I have been a couple of times) rather than wanting to perform any heroics. I know too many people in the local MRT's to want to embarrass myself by having to call them out for something like that

Halloween Jack

Myself and my dad ended up off the road and in the ditch near the Sally gap on Xmas day once. We were going from Kildare to Wicklow and it seemed like a nice idea. We were fine until we stopped ironically to help another carload of folk who had come off, after that we had no momentum and were skidding a lot. The front wheel of the car ended up in the ditch,we were able to lift it out but then the car shot off down the hill, my dad managed to jump I. And ghost the car down the hill and over the little bridge there! Funny in hindsight;)