Wicklow Way - lost!

Bold Abdu

I hope someone can help me.

I was out for a run/trek of the Wicklow Way on Saturday. I started at Marley Park with the intention of running to Crone Wood car park.

Following the WW signs all the way, I got to Cruagh Road, around to Kilakee Road Car Park, up Kilakee Road and then took the right turn off the road in to the wooded area. After maybe 10 or 15 minutes I came to a gate/barrier and out on to another road (maybe Bohernabreena Road). Following the sign I turned right down the road….then the signs disappeared.

I drove back up there today to see where I went wrong but still couldn’t find a sign.

Any ideas?

Benny_Cake

Bold Abdu wrote: »

I hope someone can help me.

I was out for a run/trek of the Wicklow Way on Saturday. I started at Marley Park with the intention of running to Crone Wood car park.

Following the WW signs all the way, I got to Cruagh Road, around to Kilakee Road Car Park, up Kilakee Road and then took the right turn off the road in to the wooded area. After maybe 10 or 15 minutes I came to a gate/barrier and out on to another road (maybe Bohernabreena Road). Following the sign I turned right down the road….then the signs disappeared.

I drove back up there today to see where I went wrong but still couldn’t find a sign.

Any ideas?

After the underpass at the M50, did you head straight through the roundabout and up Kilmashogue lane? Because sounds like you may have taken a right turn there instead, apologies if I picked you up wrong!

Judge

Bold Abdu wrote: »

I hope someone can help me.

I was out for a run/trek of the Wicklow Way on Saturday. I started at Marley Park with the intention of running to Crone Wood car park.

Following the WW signs all the way, I got to Cruagh Road, around to Kilakee Road Car Park, up Kilakee Road and then took the right turn off the road in to the wooded area. After maybe 10 or 15 minutes I came to a gate/barrier and out on to another road (maybe Bohernabreena Road). Following the sign I turned right down the road….then the signs disappeared.

I drove back up there today to see where I went wrong but still couldn’t find a sign.

Any ideas?

The Wicklow Way shares part of the route of the Dublin Mountains Way along the wide ridge between Fairy Castle and Tibradden. Both are marked with the standard yellow "walking man" symbols used by all National Waymarked Ways. The markers on the shared section have WW and DMW to distinguish the routes.

From the sound of things, you turned right onto the DMW at the point where the two trails diverge, instead of descending into the Glencullen Valley and wound up following the DMW over Tibradden, Cruagh etc.

ibebanging

Benny_Cake wrote: »

After the underpass at the M50, did you head straight through the roundabout and up Kilmashogue lane? Because sounds like you may have taken a right turn there instead, apologies if I picked you up wrong!

There is no straight ahead (12 O'clock) exit off this roundabout, only a left or right exit.

BarryD

What the others say, the Wicklow Way goes more or less straight uphill from Marlay Park, up Kilmashogue Lane. You must have turned off it or someone has twisted a sign. You must also have gone through several junctions around Rockbrook and so on that had no signs! Unless there's some sort of Sli na Slainte loop walk there or the like. Sounds like up hit the Dublin Mountains Way up near Killakee car park, went through the wood there and onto Piperstown Road. The DMW follows the road to the right there before crossing a narrow bridge (Nanny's Bridge) and then left down Newtown Lane.

The routes of both WW and DMW are marked on our map 'The Dublin & North Wicklow Mountains' and also the Dublin Mountain Partnership map, 'The Dublin Mountains' although there a few route changes in the DMW since that was printed. Trust this helps.

It'd be left off the roundabout after crossing under the M50.

Benny_Cake

ibebanging wrote: »

There is no straight ahead (12 O'clock) exit off this roundabout, only a left or right exit.

Quite right, it's been too long since I was up there.

Bold Abdu

OP here. Thanks for the replies.

I think I was correct in the way I went but the signs just vanished after a certain point.

I left Marley park, up Kilmashogue Lane,turned left in to the car park, followed the route up the hill, took the sharp right on to the open mountain (not sure what mountain it is).

I reached the junction between the WW & DMW. I followed the WW sign which took me down to the new Zipit place in Tibradden car park. I went out the gate of the car park and across the road, in another gate and up a hill. I'm a bit vague as to what I came across for a while (except I was following WW signs, but eventually I emerged on to Cruagh Road, came around the sharp bend that leaves you at the viewing point (over Dublin) car park on Killakee Road.

I went up Killakee road for a few hundred metres before I took a right turn off road and in to a wooded (formerly wooded) area. Again I followed the signs and eventually came to a road. There was a WW sign that directed me right (I'm not sure what road this was but if I had have gone left I would have landed up on Killakee Road again). I took the right as instructed and didn't see anymore WW signs. I realised after a little while I had gone wrong but just stuck to the road and eventually ended up on the Bohernabreena road heading for the Old Bawn!

I still can't work out where I went wrong.

silverharp

out if curiosity how well signposted is it supposed to be? I was in Laragh last weekend and wanted to use the same turn as the Wicklow Way to get down to Glendalough but there was no signs. I had a map but at the same time you had to go past/through the tourist shop and its car park so I was wondering if I was on the right path. I was wondering if property owners had taken them down assuming they were ever there?

Bold Abdu

silverharp wrote: »

out if curiosity how well signposted is it supposed to be? I was in Laragh last weekend and wanted to use the same turn as the Wicklow Way to get down to Glendalough but there was no signs. I had a map but at the same time you had to go past/through the tourist shop and its car park so I was wondering if I was on the right path. I was wondering if property owners had taken them down assuming they were ever there?

It was very well signposted up until I got lost. Other sections I've been on are also very well signed.

Not sure about the section you refer to.

griffin100

The descriptions given on the IMRA website for the WW Relay are useful if you want to walk sections: https://www.imra.ie/ad-hoc/WWR%20leg%20descriptions.doc

Bold Abdu

griffin100 wrote: »

The descriptions given on the IMRA website for the WW Relay are useful if you want to walk sections: https://www.imra.ie/ad-hoc/WWR%20leg%20descriptions.doc

I had a quick read of that but I suppose my lack of knowledge of road and mountain names is handicapping me.

The IMRA link (leg 1) says ... "From here follow the WW signs up and over the mountain and all the way to the Glencullen Road. Note there have been many recent changes in this section of the WW and a recce is advised.
Turn LEFT onto the Glencullen road and continue for the best part of a 1.5km before you take the first turn on your RIGHT down Boranaraltry Lane. ".

This seems to suggest that when I come out of Tibradden car park I need to turn left. However, the sign up there suggests I come out of the car park, cross the road, in the gate and climb up another off road trail.

Maybe they're have been changes here recently.

Do you recognise what I said earlier in terms of emerging at the viewing point car park on Killakee Road, going up Killakee Road, turning right and re-emerging on another road?

Enduro

You should not have been anywhere near Tibradden and the Zipit centre. You took the DMW at the juntion of the DMW and WW, and headed for Tibradden peak. Instead you should have carried on straight downhill past the map board at that junction which would have brought you out onto the Glencullen road, where you would have turned left.

Alun

The thing is you shouldn't have ended up in Tibradden car park at all! You must have turned right and followed the DMW sign into the forest and over Tibradden Mountain instead of the WW one which descends downhill to the Glencullen Road, and then turns left along the road for a while as described above. The signs you saw on the other side of the road from the car park were, again, DMW signs.

Enduro

Snap

BarryD

Bold Abdu wrote: »

I reached the junction between the WW & DMW. I followed the WW sign which took me down to the new Zipit place in Tibradden car park.

So what Judge guessed above, you reached the junction between the WW & DMW but you followed the DMW, not the Wicklow Way. You needed to continue downhill on a roughish stony track to reach the Glencullen road, turn left for a kilometre or so and then right down to Boranaraltry Bridge and so on.

Go buy a decent map, any map and study the names of hills and valleys!!

Double snap!!

Alun

silverharp wrote: »

out if curiosity how well signposted is it supposed to be? I was in Laragh last weekend and wanted to use the same turn as the Wicklow Way to get down to Glendalough but there was no signs. I had a map but at the same time you had to go past/through the tourist shop and its car park so I was wondering if I was on the right path. I was wondering if property owners had taken them down assuming they were ever there?

What "tourist shop"? If you mean the Woollen Mills shop, then that's nowhere near the Wicklow Way.

From Laragh itself you can go up the lane by the side of the village shop to a small car park in front of the church and follow the large track leading into the forest to pick up the WW towards Glendalough.

Alun

Bold Abdu wrote: »

Do you recognise what I said earlier in terms of emerging at the viewing point car park on Killakee Road, going up Killakee Road, turning right and re-emerging on another road?

Absolutely .. sounds very much like the DMW to me

Judge

silverharp wrote: »

out if curiosity how well signposted is it supposed to be? I was in Laragh last weekend and wanted to use the same turn as the Wicklow Way to get down to Glendalough but there was no signs. I had a map but at the same time you had to go past/through the tourist shop and its car park so I was wondering if I was on the right path. I was wondering if property owners had taken them down assuming they were ever there?

How old is your map? The Wicklow Way was routed away from Laragh in 1999. You can still walk through the old woollen mill to join the Green Road to Glendalough though...

Alun

Judge wrote: »

How old is your map? The Wicklow Way was routed away from Laragh in 1999. You can still walk through the old woollen mill to join the Green Road to Glendalough though...

I never knew the WW went that way in the past. Like you say, it's still a possible route to Glendalough from Laragh though.

BarryD

Indeed and it did, in the 1990s the WW went down into Laragh and out by the Old Woolen Mills, along the Green Road and so on. This route might well have lingered on OSI maps for a while.

But to answer query, the Wicklow Way has pretty good signposting. Always possible that pranksters move or twist a sign but on the whole it's good.

silverharp

BarryD wrote: »

Indeed and it did, in the 1990s the WW went down into Laragh and out by the Old Woolen Mills, along the Green Road and so on. This route might well have lingered on OSI maps for a while.

But to answer query, the Wicklow Way has pretty good signposting. Always possible that pranksters move or twist a sign but on the whole it's good.

that answers it, I am using an older map , good to know. I didn't know the WW route had changed

Bold Abdu

Thanks folks.

I get it now! Sorry to earlier posters who had already given me the answer, but I had in my head that the WW & DMW just crossed at the bottom of the slope heading to Fairy Castle. Must pay more attention in future.

I'll have to apologise to my mate again who was waiting for me in Crone Wood car park:)