AOIBHÍN HEADS UP THE WICKLOW HILLS FOR ‘TRACKS AND TRAILS’
THE Wicklow Uplands played a starring role in the latest episode of ‘Tracks and Trails’ as actress Aoibhín Garrihy and her husband John Burke paid a visit to the garden county.
The couple started at the JB Memorial in Ballinastoe and covered a distance of 30km along the Wicklow Way, passing Luggala House on their journey. On their way they met world mountain bike champion Robin Seymour, who trains regularly on the designated mountain bike tracks, which have been separated from the walking trails. In the forest they met local historian Sean Byrne who remembered when times were very different and tells them about a deserted village, which the last residents left in 1954.
Having walked a further 6km of country roads, the couple stopped for lunch in Roundwood village, then completed a 2km looped walk around the lakes at the Vartry reservoir. There, local engineer Ned Fleming told them about the reservoir’s water connection into Dublin and its history and Edwardian architecture. The episode remains available on RTÉ Player for the next four weeks.