Wim van Velzen photography - landscape

Co. Wicklow


Glen of Imail large	Dunard 1	Dunard 2


Donard 3	Donard 4	Donard 5	Donard 6


Glendalough 1	Glendalough 2	Glendalough 3

Glenmalur

The Wicklow Mountains (up to nine hundred metres) start where the south of Dublin ends. The moment I escaped the business and hurry of town and main roads, I experienced a remarkable peace. What a relief.
The whole of the area invites to go out for a stroll, take your bike and most of all look and breath the quietness. The hills themselves offer a variety of green valleys, pleasant villages and windy, bare highlands.

Very famous and therefore very popular with the coach and camcorder crowd is Glendalough: one of the first monasteries in Ireland. The most beautiful part is the grave-yard. Old and new stones standing between the church buildings and the round tower give an impression of continuity. There is no break between long ago and now - living (and dieing) always went on.
In spite of the crowds it is a place of placidity. Maybe because of its position between the hills and the two lakes, who gave the name to the place.
Nevertheless: I want to go back and be there at 8.00 a.m., preferably during fall when the trees change colour.

The village of Donard was to me very much a typical Irish village. The churches, pubs, the general store. And the Holy Virgin in the middle of that all - or is the sign For sale a sign that time will change here as well?
It has the kind of peacefulness that's so enviable - but probably the local youngsters have other thoughts about that...

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