Low level walks in Wicklow Mountains.

ljeh1

I'm looking for ideas on low level walks in the Wicklow Mountains. Ideally what I'm looking for are walks that could be done if the weather is bad especially if its windy and it is best to keep off the mountain tops. The duration would be in the region of 5/6 hours and distance of about 20 km.

BarryD

Pretty hard to find 'low level walks' in the Dublin & Wicklow Mountains of that sort of duration unless you stick to roads and put up with dodging traffic. The ridge of hills that runs from the Sugarloaf down towards Carrick Mountain has possibilities but is very linear. Or the coast itself, you can walk pretty much from Bray to Wicklow, with odd detour. Have a look at our Wicklow East map - covers the area well.

Gasherbraun

You could try from the pier gates (O 17230 06450) through the Luggala valley on the old green road to Lough Dan then follow the NE shore of lough Dan under Knocknacloghoge and follow the Inchavore River (This route involves crossing the Inchavore so may not be suitable in poor weather) to the forest tracks through Carigeenduff and up to the Military Road at O 10597 05563.

It is a linear route that measures a tad under 10km to the Military Road - may not be as long as you want - so would need two cars unless you a) reverse it or b) trudge a couple of km's up the Military Road and pick up the Cloghoge Brook that starts of quite exposed but does descend into a valley that hits the main Luggala valley at O 15927 05973 and would give you a circular route of about 18km's. Overall this is a varied and interesting route through a beautiful part of Wicklow that is not as widely visited as some other places. I would not call it sheltered but there again there is not much shelter anywhere in the Wicklow Mountains when the weather closes.

Overall the looped route gives about 450M climb and descent over its length.

Alun

There are lots of tracks around the Annamoe, Trooperstown and Clara Vale aread that can be connected up to make some quite long walks, and although you can't avoid being out in the open on Trooperstown itself you can skirt around the summit to avoid being blown away.