Top Things to Do in Wicklow, Republic of Ireland

Poulaphouca is a small but historically resonant townland and waterfall site situated in County Wicklow, in the eastern foothills of the Wicklow Mountains. The name derives from the Irish "Poll an Phúca," meaning "the hole of the pooka" — a reference to the shape-shifting supernatural creature of Irish folklore said to haunt the dramatic gorge through which the River Liffey thunders. The site is most famous today as the location of the Poulaphouca Reservoir, also known as Blessington Lakes, one of the largest artificial lakes in Ireland, created when the valley was flooded in the late 1930s and early 1940s as part of a major hydroelectric scheme. The reservoir supplies drinking water to a large portion of greater Dublin and generates electricity via the Liffey Hydroelectric Scheme, making this quiet corner of Wicklow one of the most practically significant engineering achievements in twentieth-century Ireland. Before the flooding, the valley contained thriving farmland, several villages, and the celebrated Poulaphouca Waterfall itself — a spectacular three-tiered cascade on the River Liffey that attracted tourists, artists, and writers throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The waterfall was a mandatory stop on the Romantic tour of Wicklow and was sketched and painted by numerous artists. Travellers including Thomas Moore are said to have visited the falls, and the raw, churning spectacle of the Liffey plunging through a narrow basalt gorge made a deep impression on all who witnessed it. The original village of Poulaphouca, along with the villages of Baltyboys and Burgage, was submerged when the valley was flooded, and the displaced families — some three hundred households — were resettled, a piece of social upheaval that still resonates in local memory. The waterfall itself did not entirely disappear with the reservoir. A reduced but still impressive fall continues to flow through the gorge just below the Poulaphouca Dam, and it remains visible and accessible to visitors. When water is released from the reservoir in sufficient volume, the falls reclaim some of their former ferocity, and the sight of white water crashing through the dark rocky gorge is genuinely arresting. The sound alone — a persistent low roar that builds to a crashing thunder when flow is high — gives the place an atmospheric intensity that connects the visitor to the awe felt by earlier travellers centuries ago. The gorge is narrow, the rocks are black and smoothed by millennia of water, and the surrounding vegetation leans over the chasm in a dense curtain of green. The Poulaphouca Reservoir itself, seen from the right vantage point, is a surprisingly beautiful body of water. Its irregular shoreline follows the contours of the original valleys and hills, giving it the appearance of a natural lake rather than a constructed one. On calm days the surface mirrors the surrounding Wicklow hills and the wide Irish sky, and the area has become popular with walkers, cyclists, and anglers. A forest park and looped walking trails have been developed around parts of the shoreline, offering peaceful, relatively easy walking with occasional views across the water. The landscape here sits at the transition between the open bogland and moorland of the higher Wicklow uplands and the softer, more pastoral scenery of the lowlands further east and north. The broader area around Poulaphouca is rich in things to see. Blessington, a handsome estate town with a wide main street, lies just a few kilometres to the north and serves as the main local service centre. The Wicklow Mountains National Park is easily accessible to the south, with Glendalough, one of Ireland's premier heritage sites, reachable within half an hour's drive. The Hollywood Glen and the Glen of Imaal are close by, and the Georgian splendour of Russborough House — one of Ireland's finest Palladian mansions — sits near the northern shore of the reservoir and is well worth a visit in its own right. The entire region has a depth of historical and natural interest that rewards slow exploration rather than a single targeted visit. Getting to Poulaphouca is straightforward from Dublin. The R756 and surrounding roads connect the area to the N81, which runs between Dublin and Baltinglass. The reservoir is roughly fifty kilometres southwest of Dublin city centre, making it feasible as a day trip. Bus services connect Blessington to Dublin, though a car gives far greater flexibility for exploring the reservoir loop and the waterfall viewpoint. The falls are best viewed after periods of sustained rainfall when the river is running high and the ESB (Electricity Supply Board) is releasing water through the dam. In dry periods the falls can be considerably reduced, though never entirely absent. The area is accessible year-round, but the Wicklow light in spring and autumn is particularly beautiful, and summer weekends can draw considerable numbers of walkers and day-trippers to the forest park and lakeside paths. One of the more haunting details of Poulaphouca's story is that during prolonged droughts or low-water conditions, remnants of the submerged world have occasionally emerged from the reservoir — old field boundaries, road surfaces, the foundations of long-drowned farmhouses, and even fragments of the original bridge. These ghostly reappearances of the lost landscape have a peculiar power, reminding visitors that beneath the placid surface of the lake lies an entire erased world. The folklore of the pooka, tied to this place for centuries before it was flooded, adds another dimension: in Irish tradition the pooka was associated with waterfalls and river crossings, liminal places where the boundary between the ordinary world and something stranger felt permeable. Standing at the gorge at Poulaphouca, with the water roaring below and the mountains rising behind, that ancient sense of the uncanny is not entirely difficult to feel.

Nestled in the serene glacial valley of Glencree in County Wicklow, the Glencree German War Cemetery is one of the most poignant and least-visited war cemeteries in Ireland. It serves as the final resting place for around 134 German nationals who died on Irish soil during both World War One and World War Two. What makes this site especially remarkable is its geographical and historical anomaly: a German military cemetery sitting quietly in neutral Ireland, far removed from any conventional battlefield, maintained with dignified simplicity amid the wild Wicklow uplands. It is a place of reflection that draws visitors interested in the often-overlooked intersection of Irish neutrality, wartime history, and the human cost of conflict. The origins of the cemetery are rooted in a combination of wartime circumstance and postwar diplomatic effort. During World War One, a number of German sailors and airmen died in Irish waters or were interred in Irish territory, and their remains were gathered here. During World War Two, Ireland's policy of neutrality — referred to internally as "The Emergency" — meant that German servicemen who crash-landed or washed ashore on Irish territory were often interred locally. Over the decades following both wars, the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge) undertook the careful consolidation of German remains from various sites across Ireland, transferring them to Glencree for permanent burial. The cemetery was officially established and dedicated in 1961, with further additions made over subsequent years. The physical character of the cemetery is striking in its austerity and beauty. Unlike many Commonwealth war cemeteries with their orderly rows of white stone, Glencree favours dark basalt lava stone crosses and flat markers, laid low to the ground in a style typical of German military cemeteries on the European continent. The graves are set into a grassy lawn enclosed by low stone walls, with mature trees offering dappled shade and a sense of seclusion. The atmosphere is one of profound stillness — the only sounds typically being the wind moving through the heather and grass, birdsong from the surrounding hills, and the distant murmur of the Glencree River below. There is no grand monument or elaborate ornamentation; the place communicates grief and memory through understatement. Among those buried here are German Luftwaffe and naval personnel, as well as some civilians and merchant seamen. One of the more poignant aspects of the cemetery is that it includes the graves of men from both World Wars buried side by side, spanning decades of conflict. Some of the interments came from recoveries made long after the wars ended, as remains were discovered and identified over time. The stories of individual men buried here vary enormously — some died in aircraft crashes over Irish territory, others drowned at sea and were washed ashore on the Irish coast, and a small number died in Irish internment camps. The surrounding Glencree Valley is one of the most beautiful and historically layered landscapes in County Wicklow. The valley was shaped by glacial action during the last Ice Age, and the deep U-shaped profile, blanketed in heather moorland and bog, gives it a remote, timeless quality. Just down the valley road from the cemetery stands the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, a respected reconciliation and dialogue centre that operates from the buildings of a former British military barracks, itself later used as a reformatory school. The proximity of the peace centre to the war cemetery carries a quiet symbolic resonance. The Sally Gap, one of Wicklow's most dramatic mountain passes, is accessible from here, and the broader Wicklow Mountains National Park surrounds the valley. Visiting the cemetery is free and the site is open at all times, though there are no facilities such as toilets, cafes, or visitor centres at the cemetery itself. The Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation nearby sometimes hosts events and has its own café. The cemetery is reached by driving south from Enniskerry village into the Glencree Valley along a narrow country road. From Dublin city centre, the journey takes approximately 45 minutes by car, and the approach through the mountains is itself scenic and rewarding. There is a small parking area near the cemetery. Public transport to the immediate site is extremely limited, so a car or bicycle is essentially required. The best time to visit is during spring or summer, when the surrounding moorland is at its most colourful and the light in the valley is generous. Autumn visits have their own melancholy beauty as the bracken turns copper and gold. Winter visits are possible but the narrow mountain roads can be difficult in icy or snowy conditions, and the valley receives limited daylight hours. Visitors should wear sturdy footwear and be prepared for changeable mountain weather at any time of year. The cemetery demands and rewards a quiet, contemplative visit — it is not a destination for crowds but for individuals or small groups willing to sit with the weight of history in a landscape of exceptional natural beauty. A little-known detail that adds complexity to the site is that among those buried here are men who died not in combat but in accidents, illnesses, or misadventures connected to the margins of wartime — a reminder that war's toll extends far beyond the battlefield. The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge continues to maintain the site in cooperation with the Irish authorities, and the cemetery is periodically visited by German dignitaries and relatives of the interred. For Irish visitors, it offers a rare opportunity to contemplate their country's unique wartime position — officially neutral, yet deeply entangled with the consequences of global conflict — in a setting of quiet and wild beauty that feels far removed from the political world and yet intimately shaped by it.