Glendalough Wicklow
Glendalough, meaning the valley of the two lakes in Irish, is one of the most important and most visited early Christian monastic sites in Ireland, a settlement established in the sixth century by St Kevin in a glaciated valley in the Wicklow Mountains that grew into one of the most significant centres of learning and religious life in early medieval Ireland and whose extensive ruins, dramatically set between two lakes in a valley of great natural beauty, make it one of the most evocative heritage sites in the country.
St Kevin sought this remote valley in the Wicklow Mountains as a hermitage in the tradition of the Desert Fathers, the contemplative impulse toward withdrawal from society that animated much of the early Celtic church. The quality of the valley, its remoteness, the dramatic rock walls and the two lakes providing both isolation and sustenance, made it an ideal hermitage location, and the community that gathered around Kevin grew rapidly after his death into one of the most important monasteries in Ireland, a centre of learning and manuscript production that attracted students from across Ireland and from Britain.
The ruins of the monastic settlement are extensive and varied. The Round Tower, rising over 30 metres to a conical cap, is one of the finest and most complete in Ireland, its narrow doorway set high above the ground to exclude hostile visitors and its visibility from the surrounding hills serving as both landmark and bell tower for the monastery. The Cathedral, the largest of several churches in the complex, and the diminutive St Kevin's Kitchen with its distinctive belfry, its stone roof surviving intact, are the most celebrated buildings in the lower valley settlement.
The upper lake at the head of the valley, wilder and more remote than the lower lake, provides excellent walking in the Wicklow Mountains National Park surrounding the site.