Wicklow Mountains National Park

The Wicklow Mountains are a single mass of granite pushed up around four hundred million years ago and then carved by ice into rounded summits and steep-sided valleys. The national park covers about twenty thousand hectares of it, most of that blanket bog and upland heath, with Lugnaquilla at 925 metres the highest ground in Leinster. The peat here is deep and holds an enormous volume of carbon and water; walking off the marked routes in it is far harder and wetter than the map suggests. The Military Road, built after the 1798 rebellion to give troops access to the mountains, still runs the spine of the park and is the standard drive. The park visitor centre is at Glendalough, which absorbs most of the visitors and leaves large areas of the uplands empty. Weather changes quickly and the tops carry cloud far more often than the valleys.

What you actually see

• The blanket bog - deep peat over most of the upland, and hard walking.
• The Military Road - the 1800s route that still crosses the park.
• Lugnaquilla - 925 metres, the highest ground in Leinster.
• The glacial valleys - Glendalough, Glenmalure and Glenmacnass.

When to go

May to September for the longest days and the driest ground. Heather colours the slopes in August. Cloud sits on the tops in any month; check the forecast before going high.

Honest expectations

Bog off the marked paths is genuinely difficult and often waist-deep in wet places. Phone coverage is patchy in the valleys. Glendalough car parks fill by mid-morning at weekends. Weather on the tops can be twenty degrees colder than Dublin.

Nearby

Glendalough is at the park's centre; Lough Tay and the Sally Gap are on the Military Road.