Wicklow

County Wicklow is the easiest big-landscape escape from Dublin: granite mountains, glacial lakes and formal gardens all within about an hour of the city centre. Wicklow Mountains National Park, at roughly 20,000 hectares, is Ireland's largest national park and the only one on the east coast, and its best-known site, Glendalough, is a monastic settlement founded by St Kevin in the 6th century, set beside two lakes.

Start here

• Glendalough Guide — the monastic site, the Round Tower, the two lakes and the walking trails, plus how to get there from Dublin without a car.
• Things to Do in Wicklow — the wider county beyond Glendalough: Powerscourt, Mount Usher Gardens, Kilruddery House, Avoca and the Sally Gap.
• Wicklow Mountains National Park Guide — the geography, wildlife and walking routes of Ireland's largest national park, and where to get into it.
• Best Wicklow Day Trips — how to combine Wicklow's sites into a day out from Dublin, and what's realistic by bus versus what needs a car.

Wicklow also comes up as part of our Dublin coverage — see Best Day Trips from Dublin for Glendalough and Powerscourt from the Dublin side of the journey — but the guides above are the place to start for Wicklow on its own terms.