Today's Place to Daydream About: Glendalough, Ireland

Glendalough is a beautiful glacial valley in the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin. These days most of the glen is within Wicklow National Park.

The name means "glen of two lakes" and it does indeed have two charming lakes.

And other wonderful scenery.

Beside the scenery and the falcons, the glen is most famous for the ruins of an ancient monastery founded in the sixth century by St. Kevin. The monastery was a great seat of learning for centuries and one of the most important manuscripts of ancient Irish legends and poems is known as the Book of Glendalough. It was partly destroyed in 1398 by English troops and then declined.

The most impressive part of the ruin is this round tower, which is original except for the roof, which was reconstructed from original stones in 1876. The round towers of Irish monasteries were built as bell towers and beacons for travelers, mainly in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

This is St. Kevin's Church, a late medieval construction.

The old cathedral is in ruins.

The Gateway is another impressive ruin.

Hiking up around the lakes one passes other ruins; this is Reefert's Church -- Righ Fearta, the burial place of the kings.

The the ruins of St. Kevin's Cell, and ancient beehive hut old enough that it may possibly have been the actual cell of St. Kevin.

And there is much more -- stone crosses, ruined buildings and walls, and the mysterious Deer Stone, a place of pilgrimage into the twentieth century. (Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s.)

Hike all the way to the far side of the Upper Lake and you reach the Miners' Village, used by lead miners in the nineteenth century.

Right now to explore these ruins and then hike up around these lakes seems like paradise to me.