"Free places" to sleep on Wicklow Way...

eltoro1

Hi.

I'm planning a hike from Glendalough to Dublin on the Wicklow Way, and it might be too long to manage in one day.

Are any of you aware of any campsites or places where it would be possible to put up a tent or sleep in a shelter along the route?

Thanks in Advance
- Thore

Cookie_Monster

there is a "shelter" just before the WW turns down onto the road before Lough Dan, probably to close to Glendalough though...

Donny5

eltoro1 wrote: »

Hi.

I'm planning a hike from Glendalough to Dublin on the Wicklow Way, and it might be too long to manage in one day.

Are any of you aware of any campsites or places where it would be possible to put up a tent or sleep in a shelter along the route?

Thanks in Advance
- Thore

Hey, there's surprisingly few places to camp along this stretch of the route, to be honest. The stretch you're talking about is 51km with a good ascent, maybe around 1,000m or more. It would be doable in one day without gear, but it would be a full day 10-12 hours walking without breaks.

If you want to break it up into two days, then there's a couple of spots to stop, but only really one in the right place that's also suitable for camping. That's Knockree woods. There's a valley there along the Glencree river with good camping spots on either side. It's about 30km from Glendalough along the way, and it leaves you with another 21km the next day.

The area is very well used, and is frequently full of people camping having walked the five or six hundred metres from the road. Due to this, there's often lots of rubbish and, at least on weekends in the summer, you're very unlikely to have the place to yourself. There are plenty of disparate sites good for camping, so you'll certainly be able to find a spot out of sight of others, but you'll probably hear them.

At the same part of the way, maybe 100m or so from where the route intersects the road, there's a nice youth hostel, the Knockree Youth Hostel. It's not free, or even cheap by hostel standards, but it's recently been done up and might suit you not to have to carry camping gear. It would certainly make the walk much easier.

If you bivvi, there's lots of suitable forests along the entire route. Around the halfway point would just after you leave the R759 (Roundwood to Sally Gap crossroads) and just off the road there's a bivviable forest. It's not fantastic and there's a good lot of mountain biking trails, but it'd do. After you leave that forest heading up White Hill, there's nothing good until Crone Woods. After that, there's tons of spots in various forests until you get up to Prince William's Seat, after which I don't think there's anything decent.

There's also a three-sided shelter built by Mountain Meitheal up on Paddock Hill, that's good for a rest or an overnight in Summer. It's grand for all but driving rain, since one side is open to the elements. It's no good for you, unless you want to do the trip over three days since it's not far outside Glendalough at all, four or five km, I think.

Chiorino

I understand that Coillte do not allow camping in any of the national park/plantation areas of forest. Is this enforced and if so how rigidly?

Cookie_Monster

national park

You can camp anywhere in the National Park except Glendalough valley. It came up here recently.

Best bet I reckon is camp above Powerscourt Waterfall, I've done so a couple of times going the other way. Theres a spot just by the footbridge.

EDIT:

Wild Camping

Visitors seeking a wilderness experience while undertaking multi-day mountaineering journeys are permitted to camp in the more remote areas of the Park, subject to a code of practise known as "the Camping Code". Permits may be required

http://www.wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie/Recreation.html#camping

Coillte have **** all to do with it, it the National Parks and Wildlife Service that control it. All Coillte do is their best to ruin it

Donny5

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Coillte have **** all to do with it, it the National Parks and Wildlife Service that control it. All Coillte do is their best to ruin it

Inside the national park, this is true. Outside the National Park, almost all forests are owned by Coillte and they have complete legal control of them. That said, the don't seem to give two ****s about who camps in their forests, although it's usually officially banned.

loobylou

Theres a basic shelter built on the Wicklow Way just before the drop down into Glenmalure (coming from Dublin), built I think by Meitheal.
Don't know it's capacity but from memory would think it could sleep 6-8.
Edit, just re-read OP, this is too far south for you. Apologies.

eltoro1

Thanks guys.

We might make it Glendalough to Enniskerry in two days, if the mood, time and weather isn't for the whole stretch.

But we'll check out the spots along the route.

Thanks again...

eltoro1

Just a quick bonus question!

Any good pubs along the wicklow way from Glendalough to Dublin?

We might end up at Johnny Fox's or Merry Ploughboy when we get close to Dublin, but before that I have no idea what to find!