Wicklow Mountains Military Road

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Dublin

   Dublin is a city you leave by the back door if you are a rider, and the back door is the one that points toward the Wicklow hills. Beginning somewhere in the middle of the city, with over a million people in the area, you spend the first half hour in ordinary urban work: buses, bus lanes, cyclists, taxis, the Liffey in the distance, and traffic lights that never seem to line up. Ireland's capital is compact, friendly and slow to cross at rush hour, so leave before eight or after nine.

   Read the complete Dublin write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Dublin is where the day begins. Next is Sally Gap.

2. 2. Sally Gap

   Sally Gap is a bleak crossroads in the middle of the Wicklow Mountains, about 495 metres above sea level, where the road from Dublin meets the one running across the hills from Glendalough to Roundwood. There is nothing there but a signpost, a sheep or two on the tarmac and a view of huge, rolling bog under a sky that seems to change every ten minutes. It is the sort of place that feels at the edge of the world, although the centre of Dublin is only about forty minutes away.

   Read the complete Sally Gap write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Sally Gap comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Glenmacnass Waterfall, mostly downhill.

3. 3. Glenmacnass Waterfall

   The road over the Wicklow Mountains was built by soldiers, and it shows. After the 1798 rebellion the British army cut a military road straight through the upland bog, so that troops could reach rebels who had been hiding in the glens, and the route from Laragh up to Sally Gap and over to Dublin still follows that logic: no hairpins, just long lines that climb where the ground allows. Glenmacnass is one of the points where the road leans over a drop, and the waterfall is the reason people pull in.

   Read the complete Glenmacnass Waterfall write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 43 km into the recorded legs you reach Glenmacnass Waterfall. Next is Glendalough.

4. 4. Glendalough

   Glendalough, the valley of two lakes, is a hollow gouged out by a glacier in the Wicklow Mountains, with a pair of dark, still lakes between steep, wooded slopes, and at its foot a ruined monastic city that is one of the most important in Ireland. The place feels sheltered and still, and the stone ruins look as if they have grown from the hillside. It is only about an hour from Dublin, so it is also one of the busiest places in the country on a fine summer weekend.

   Read the complete Glendalough write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Glendalough, late in the day. Next is Laragh.

5. 5. Laragh

   Laragh is a crossroads village in the middle of County Wicklow, and it is where the Military Road finishes its long run across the bog and drops into the green valleys. There are few buildings: a handful of pubs and cafes, a hostel, a church and a gift shop. It sits at the meeting of several glens, and the nearest larger towns are Rathdrum and Rathnew, ten to fifteen kilometres away, so this is not the place to count on fuel. Fill the tank before you come up from the city.

   Read the complete Laragh write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Laragh. That is the ride.