The valley around Glenmalure has a lot of things to offer to the tourists. It has many less busy walking trails sprawling through many directions, such as through the forest or climbing a mountain. The valley has few low profile waterfalls. It also has a couple of very low profile loughs (or lake) as well. One of those is the Arts Lough. Anyone can visit only the lake for fun, or can visit while taking any trails that passes beside this (such as Lugnaquilla trail).
Our path starts from the carpark and passes by the Baravore Mines.
About Arts Lough
This Arts Lough is very small in size. It also doesn’t have much depth. Most of the part of the lough is shallow and the bed under the water is visible. This lake is located on top of a hill but at the same time on a lap of a hill. It is something like if you put the lake on the seat of a chair and the back of the chair is another hill. Color of the water is as usual brown because of the peats. As the surrounding area of the lake is like a basin, it gets its water dripped out from the hills. And then discharges the overflowing water through the bushes and large boulders of stones initially. Then the stream joins into the stream of Fraughan Glen Waterfall. And later which falls into the Avonbeg river.
Then we had to cross this shallow stream which was coming from the Fraughan Glen Waterfall.
We’ve visited the Glenmalure valley before for the waterfalls. This time we decided to visit it again for this Arts Lough. We left from Dublin after lunch. The weather was very sunny, but the last couple of days were very wet. When we reached the car park it was pretty much packed. Also people parked on the narrow road as well. But we were lucky and found people started leaving, and parked our car there. This carpark is comparatively big but gets filled very quickly. From the carpark we had to cross the Avonbeg river. Actually the river flows over the road. It is so shallow that a car could pass easily.
Immediately after crossing the river a narrow path goes to the left from the road. This narrow path goes beside the Baravore Mines. We walked through that zigzag road for around 15 minutes until it took us near a water stream that was coming from the Fraughan Glen Waterfall (also carries the water of Arts lough). This portion of walking was a continuous boring uphill walk. Both sides of the path were covered with trees and nothing interesting was found, unless you love picturing wild flowers from the roadside.
A large group of sheep were guided home by the farmers.
When we reached near the stream we took a short break by sitting over the large stones. We found another two large groups resting already. They were returning from the Arts Lough as a part of their circular trail. They all were suited with heavy trekking gears. And most of them were covered with mud, at least from toe to hip. We were slightly daunted by their experience as we didn’t have any preparation (we had jeans and shoes). So while sitting over the stones, we were confused initially, but later decided today or never.
After crossing the river we had to enter through the gate of a farm (which was open to the public). But the pity was the path itself to enter inside the farm. This path is being used by a herd of sheep every day. So it is already soft, now having rain last night it made the path a bed of mud. As soon as you put the feet on the ground it goes under the mud for 2-3 inches. So we closed our eyes and crossed the road as if we didn’t see what was happening. From my experience that was the most challenging part of the trail. So better pick a sunny and dry day to do the walking if you want to avoid this.
We finally reached the pristine calm Arts Lough.
Once you enter inside the farm then you have to climb the hill. It doesn’t have any marked path. We saw other people climbing the area just beside the fence. So we took that option. Later we found that was a good idea. Because the grasses of that area were thick to cover the muds. But still some places were slippery because all the people crossed the area that day. Also the silky hairlike grasses were slippery from the rain water. It took us around 1 hour to climb the hill because of the slippery slopes and we also sat on the stones to take a rest (the view was lovely). But once we reached the top then it was an easy walk, mostly plain compared to the earlier slopes. But again the path was sometimes muddy and slippery. We saw a guy from another group put his feet on a patch of mud beside the path and his leg went inside the mud just above the knee height. That guy was surprised and so did we. Later that poor guy washed his legs and pants from the lake water.
This Arts Lough provides a nice opportunity to capture reflection through lens.
Overall it took us nearly 2 hours of walking (we took a lot of rest in between) once we reached the Arts Lough. Most of the people there were from the loop walking trails. They were already tired at that point and didn’t bother to spend much time around this small lake. But for us we went there only to visit the lake. So we spent a lot of time around the lake. I don’t know why the lake is called Arts Lough, but the calm water of the lake creates a magnificent display of the sky on it and makes it more colorful. We were able to see the stone bed under the water. The large stones were sitting in the lake as if asking us to hop on and hop off like a leaping frog. The reflection of the large stones created a picturesque scene. A lot of those rocks were covered with green mosses and made it even more beautiful. The stones were large, dry and rough, also because of the mosses they were not slippery at all.
At one point I tried to go to the other side of the Lough to know from where it was discharging the water. But that wasn’t an easy task to do. The water was discharging through the massive stones (few of those are 8-10 feet tall). A lot of those stones were covered with bushes. By standing over a large stone I was able to hear the murmur sound of the water. It didn’t have any other sounds. Only the sound of water. The wind was blocked by the hill beside the lake (also the lake is placed slightly in a hollow of the ground (like basin). Anyway, from that point it was really difficult to keep following the water. In fact at one point I fell through a hole and got scared. And gave up my desire. Instead after spending another few lovely moments we started rolling back.
The surrounding area of the lake is actually more of mosses and has less grass. It is like a carpet, but a wet one. Once you put your feet on the mosses that release water like a sponge, and also your feet could feel that spongy ground too. While returning it didn’t take much time as we were aware of the path. Also the descent was less hardworking. We returned through the same path and all the paths were very boring. We washed out boots from the water of the stream. Then we did the same washing again from the water of the Avonbeg river. When we reached near the car park it was almost empty. Only a group was there which was having a BBQ party. After taking a short rest we started driving for Dublin again. It was another remarkable day of exploring.
How to go
Glenmalure village is located next to the Laragh village (a popular tourist village based on Glendalough). So you have to come to Laragh first, and then a short drive to Glenmalure. From the small Glenmalure village you’d find a cross road and take the right turn into the Glen road. Keep driving for a while and you’d see the large parking spot. GPS coordinate of the Arts Lough is (52°58’43.2″N, 6°25’35.9″W). To come to Laragh there are several ways to come. One using the through the M50 and then M11 motorway. From Dublin to Glenmalure it’s about an 80 minutes of drive. Another alternative way is to drive through the Sally Gap of Wicklow mountain. This would cost an additional 30 minutes but the driving would be through one of Ireland’s most scenic landscapes.
Where to park
A free parking spot is located at the end of the Glen road named “Baravore Car Park“. This can take roughly 50 cars. And you could also park beside the road but that would be too tight. To avoid the crowd try to come early, or come after lunch when people are leaving and you could use their space. GPS coordinate of the car park (52°59’17.0″N, 6°24’45.8″W)
Where to stay
If you wish to stay overnight after visiting the Arts Lough and plan to explore for more, then you have quite a few options. Closest accommodation is the Glenmalure Hostel situated beside the Avonbeg river. You would not find other amenities there. If you are looking for that then Glenmalure village would be an option. This village has several B&B for staying. Another option is to stay in Laragh village, a tourist village. Look for a list of hotels from Laragh.
What else nearby
Glenmalure has plenty of activities to do. Hiking and walking around the mountains are the most popular amongst the visitors (such as Lugnaquilla). If you think that is too much for you then you could go for the few low profile waterfalls (such as Carrawaystick, Coolalingo, etc). All those places are close to the valley.
Arts Lough,
Glenmalure,
County: Wicklow,
Country: Ireland,
GPS Coordinate (52°58’43.2″N, 6°25’35.9″W)
Written by Lonely Traveler,
For blog alonelytraveler.com
Sunday, 20 September 2020
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