Plan your trip

GETTING HERE

Irish Ferries (irishferries.com) and Stenaline (stenaline.co.uk) run regular services Holyhead-Dublin, with pedestrian fares under £40. Irish Ferries also run Pembroke Dock-Rosslare in the south of Ireland, from where you can connect to the rail network at Wexford. Several airlines also operate out of Dublin to a range of British cities (dublinairport.com).

GETTING AROUND

There are regular trains along Ireland’s east coast, connecting Dublin with this route’s start and end points at Rathdrum and Bray. Times: find prices at irishrail.ie.

Local buses don’t link up easily to the Wicklow Way, and taxis can be hard to come by in some of the remoter places, so if not travelling by train, a hire car is your best bet.

WHERE TO STAY

In Rathdrum, Stirabout Lane B&B (00 353 404 43142, stay@

stiraboutlane.com) offers modern rooms, stand out breakfasts and a lounge for walkers to rest weary limbs. Further up the trail in Laragh,

Heather House (00 353 404 45157,

wicklowheather.ie) is the perfect starting point for the day’s walk to Glendalough: the luxury rooms are decorated with an antique sensibility, and the house itself features a kitchen and numerous ornate rooms for guests to relax in. Doubles from €90.

Wicklow Way Lodge

(00 353 128 18489, wicklowway

lodge.com) once boasted Matthew McConaughey as one of its guests, such is its renown. Its setting is unbeatable, right on the Wicklow Way between Glendalough and the next day’s walk to Lough Tay. The rooms face out into tranquil hill country; doubles from about €100. Coolakay Inn (coolakayhouse.ie) is one of the longest-running and lastremaining B&Bs in the area, between the mountains and sea, and owner Yvonne will greet you like a long lost friend. Doubles from €45 per person. i MORE INFORMATION See visitwicklow.ie for points of interest, accommodation and restaurants and wicklowway.com for detail on the walking route.

● Country Walking travelled with Celtic Routes (celticroutes.info), a partnership of coastal communities in Ireland (Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford) and Wales (Ceredigion Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire), that celebrates the countries’ shared Celtic heritage and untamed landscapes.

● Local guides Diarine Nuttall (00 353 861 936861, dnuttall@eircom.

net) and Caroline O’Connor (00 353 877 849599, info@hilltoptreks.

ie) both offer private walking tours of the Wicklow mountains.