Walk the Way in 6 days

[Pjotter]

In 2007 we walked the St Cuthbert's Way in Scotland.

This year's we want to walk the Wicklow Way in 6 days.  We would like to stay in B&B or hostel accommodation.
Because we want walk the route in 6 days, we want to avoid too many kms walking off route to accomodation.

Does anyone have a recent route in GPX format for a GPS including B&B and hostel waypoints?

We are also curious how we can split the route for a 6 day walk.

[EoinR]

Hi Pjotter,

Don't have any gps co-ordinates but can suggest a few places for you to stay that with an emphasis on small budget and are close to the trail. If you check out the accommodation details on the Wicklow Way website you will find out the associated grid references.

I don't know what your fitness level is like but be prepared for a challenging enough walk in the northern half of the trail! I would suggest starting from the south which will allow for a bit of time to adjust to repeated long days of walking. With this in mind, here are the stages I'd recommend...

Day 1
Clonegal to Stranakelly - stay at Lugnaquillia View B&B (on the trail)
http://www.wicklowway.com/accommodation/stranakelly-guest-house-lugnaquillia-view.php

Day 2
Stranakelly to Iron Bridge - stay at Lugnaquilla House Hostel at Aughavannagh (around 1.5km from trail)
http://www.wicklowway.com/accommodation/aughavannagh-hostel-lugnaquilla-house-hostel.php

Day 3
Iron Bridge to Glendalough - stay at the Glendalough Hostel (around 0.5km from trail)
http://www.wicklowway.com/accommodation/glendalough-hostel-glendalough-international.php

Day 4
Glendalough to Roundwood - you'll have to go into Roundwood for choice of B&Bs (2.0km from trail)
http://www.wicklowway.com/accommodation/roundwood.php

Day 5
Roundwood to Knockree - stay at the Knockree Hostel (around 100m from trail)
http://www.wicklowway.com/accommodation/knockree-hostel-knockree-hostel.php

Day 6
Knockree to Marlay Park - take bus into Dublin from here for a choice of hostels

Best of luck on the trail!
Eoin

[Pjotter]

Marlay Park-Knockree        20 km      
Knockree-Roundwood     19.1 km       
Roundwood-Glendalough  10.6 km       
Glendalough-Iron Bridge  24.1 km
Iron Bridge-Stranakelly     30.7 km
Stranakelly-Clonegal        24.4 km


Thanks for your information!

As we arrive at 16.00 in Dublin, it's more practical to start from Marlay Park.

A question about your breakdown. What is the reason for one day to run 30.7 kilometers and 10.6 kilometers on a different day. Are these 10.6 km more difficult?

[Jacquetta]

Hello there

Eoin may answer for himself, but the reason you want a short walk to Glendalough is because the monastic city is such an amazing place that it would be a shame not to have plenty of time to explore it.  Some people spend two nights there, just to have a full day for it.

For Iron Bridge-Stranakelly, the terrain is easy (fairly flat and lots of road walking) so it isn't hard to make swift progress, whereas in the northern sections, you are crossing mountainous country with some boggy bits.

Finally, a comment: some people regard the southern portion of the Way as so dominated by road walking that they don't bother.   There is no shame in terminating your walk at Tinahely if you feel this way.  (I walked every inch, but I was researching it for the guidebook.  If I had been walking for pleasure only, I think I'd have stopped at Tinahely which is a lovely village and would reduce your final day from Iron Bridge from 31 km to 21 km.  This might make the difference to making it easy to get back to Dublin the same day.  Or, if the weather turns wet, it may be useful information to have up your sleeve.