Riding centre info: "After a good nights rest at Glenmalure Lodge, where you will have enjoyed its friendly atmosphere, open fires and traditional Irish music the night before, you and your horse will follow the old military road past the ruins of Drumgoff Barracks. Here many battles were fought in the mountains during the 1798 rebellion. The ride continues through the forests and rugged mountains leading down to the mysterious Glendalough Lakes. Here we overlook the Monastic Valley and the 7th Century Round Tower. This is the symbol of Ireland's Middle Ages reputation as the island of Saints and Scholars around the time when the Vikings attacked Glendalough in 833.”
Well no music or fire last night (as mentioned in the description above); woke up to steady rain. Set off and turned onto a forest road (lots of logging here), and up the side of the valley (longest glaciated valley in Ireland) and saw a huge waterfall across the way - near it a battle scene from Braveheart was filmed. We could see sheep being herded single file up a zigzag path - tiny moving dots. Down the other side of the mountain Anthony was waiting; we tied each horse to a tree, loosened girths, gave them water and grain - our lunch today was in a stone hut with an earthen floor. We were so wet - when I tilted my head water ran off my helmet and I could have wrung out my riding gloves!
We set off after lunch up another mountain and this time at the top, the wind was really blowing, the rain was coming at us sideways, and I was dreaming of wool gloves and wool socks! It was the only time I felt cold. We had to cross a nasty bog, so Tanya, the more experienced guide, who usually is at the back, led us on a circuitous route - the safest way - and we had to keep together so that we could go right behind the horse in front, and not deviate from the path; even so, there were some parts where the horses sunk up to their hocks. Once safely across, Tanya told us a terrible tale of horses falling and others sinking almost to their withers. If we hadn't crossed the bog, it would've added two hours to our ride, and we usually ride about 5 hours a day.
From there we took a forest road and wound our way down; encountered some hikers - once we were at a lower elevation we warmed up and the rain quit. Finally we saw glimpses of the lakes (Glendalough means valley of two lakes) and then from a lookout we saw the tower for the first time (St. Kevin's monastery - the tower was to watch for Viking raiders). What a view - we stopped many times for photo ops - much later in the evening we walked there (after dinner at about 9:00 - it doesn't get really dark here until 11:00) and had the place to ourselves - all the tour buses had gone - and took more photos.
No Anthony waiting for us (we were too far from the riding centre), so we turned the horses out in a field close to the B&B, and carried our tack to a shed at the back.
Photo: CC by gwarcita
