Lugnaquilla
Lugnaquilla - Part 1 : Lugnaquilla
Lugnaquilla - Part 2 : Blanket Bogs
Lugnaquilla - Part 3 : Descent to Glenmalure
Wicklow Mountains National Park
Lugnaquilla
Lugnaquilla is located in the Wicklow Mountains, and is the highest mountain in Ireland outside of County Kerry. Standing 925 metres-high with a prominence of 849 metres, Lugnaquilla qualifies as a furth and is the 63rd highest mountain (with a prominence of at least 600m) in the islands of Ireland and Great Britain, sitting just one place ahead of Galtymore. Lugnaquilla is also known as the 'Lug', but despite the name being the same as one of the most prominent gods in Irish mythology, it just means "hollow of the wood" (Irish: Log na Coille).There are many trails that lead to the peak of Lugnaquilla (elevation : 925m) with all of them having a difficulty of moderate or less. This entry describes the one that begins at Glenmalure Lodge

Difficulty Rating : 4.0 / 10.0 (Class 5 - Moderate)

Getting There
The trail head is located beside Glenmalure Lodge . To get there from Dublin or any of the towns just south of the city, you need to take the N11 southwards. Once you reach Kilmacanogue, turn off
to get to the R775 heading west, and follow the road as it curves southwards towards Roundwood. Keep going south through the towns of Annamoe, Killifin, and then Laragh. Approximately a kilometre south of Laragh, you will reach a fork in the road
with signs that say Glenmalure. Turn right here and continue southwards for just over 7km until you reach the carpark at Glenmalure Lodge.

Sitka Spruce
We began the hike by walking south-west and crossing the Avonbeg river via the Drumgoff Bridge. The bridge connected to a military road, where we turned right approximately half a kilometre in, and followed a wide dirt track that was fringed by forested areas on both sides. There was a junction at the half-way point of the Wicklow Way, where the left branch continued along the Wicklow Way, heading west at first before zig-zagging multiple times first southward, and then westward. The dirt track gradually ascended from around 200 metres at the Wicklow Way half-way point to about 1400 metres just after the sixth bend (3.5km mark). We passed a left turning just before the fourth bend which, had we taken it, would have looped us around the Carrawaystick summit (elevation : 728m) and to the junction just after the climb up from Kelly's Lough. This point could also have been accessed had we followed the military road at the beginning instead of starting from the Wicklow Way half-way point.


