Glendalough Monastic Site

What makes it special

The Round Tower is the most striking building on the site, about 30 metres of mica slate with granite worked through it. Look up for the doorway, set well above the ground, and the conical cap, rebuilt from its own original stones.

St Kevin's Kitchen is the small church with a stone roof and a round belfry that looks like a chimney, which is how it got its name. It is a barrel-vaulted oratory of hard mica schist under a steeply pitched roof, and no food was ever cooked in it.

The cathedral is the largest structure here. Beyond St Mary's Church stands the Priest's House, a small Romanesque building: look at the lintel over its doorway for a carving far older than the walls around it. Just past it is a large granite cross from the sixth or seventh century.

Visiting

Before you cross to the ruins, start in the Visitor Centre if this is your first time in the valley. Its exhibition is built around a model of the medieval monastery and a short film on Irish saints and monasteries, and both make the stones outside easier to read.

The centre sits beside the ruins. Go in by the Gateway, then walk the graveyard at your own pace: the tower, the cathedral, the Kitchen and the crosses all stand within it.

When you are done, the Lower Lake is a short walk further on, and the Green Road carries on beyond it to the Upper Lake.

Guided or on your own

Guided tours of the monastic city run all year in several languages, but only by advance booking. Phone the Visitor Centre on +353 (0)404 45325 before you travel to arrange one. A guide suits you if you want each building explained as you stand at it.

Tips

If every car park is full when you arrive, turn round and use the free council car park in Laragh, by the Woollen Mills, then walk in through the woods on the Green Road.

Bring a rain jacket whatever the forecast. Food and toilets are by the Visitor Centre car park.