I’m currently reflecting on a trip I took to Glendalough, Co. Wicklow, last week. Glendalough is a truly beautiful place: filled with gorgeous evergreen trees, ample deposits of granite and quartz, an impressive number of feral goats, and huge, towering rocks that shimmer with mica. Prior to my visit last week, I hadn’t been there in over ten years.

Needless to say, the various nooks and crannies of the place left me in a state of ecstasy. When my partner and I walked by the lake, I had to stop every few feet to take a picture.

This gnarled branch delighted me – I always love to see places that look as though they could serve as a comfortable abode for a storybook goblin.

My phone’s camera didn’t capture the beautiful ripples of the lake as well as I would have liked, but this picture makes me smile anyway. Nothing soothes the soul quite like spending a bit of time in nature.

Here is one of the aforementioned mica-covered rocks! Again, I don’t think my camera captured its shimmering surface as well as I would have liked, but hopefully this image will convey some sense of just how shiny it was.

The feral goats allowed us to get a lot closer to them than I had expected! I’m sure they are well used to tourists milling around the place.

Of course, no attempt to photographically chronicle the many wonders of Glendalough would be complete without a snapshot or two of its amazing hills.

Could a day trip be any more wonderful than this? ❤️