Hike the Wicklow Way from the J.B. Malone memorial stone on White Hill up the boarded sleeper path to Djouce's summit (725m)

From the Djouce summit cairn, identify the Great Sugar Loaf to the east and Lugnaquilla to the south

Continue on the Way through the Dargle valley, past the turn-off for Powerscourt Waterfall — at 121m, one of Ireland's tallest

Cover at least 50km of the trail across consecutive days, following the trail's yellow-figure waymarkers

The Wicklow Way was the Republic's first waymarked trail — its opening section was cut in 1980 and the full route finished later and running 131km from Marlay Park in south Dublin to Clonegal in County Carlow. This ultra-distance challenge covers the trail's high central section through the Wicklow Mountains, including the path over Djouce (725m) laid with old railway sleepers.

The Wicklow Way End to End: 131km

View Lough Tay, the 'Guinness Lake', from the R759 viewpoint — the shore below is private land, so this is the view

Drive the Military Road over the Sally Gap, one of the highest and most exposed mountain passes in Ireland

Walk to Glenmacnass Waterfall, an 80-metre three-drop cascade beside the R115

Photograph Glenmacnass from the upper viewpoint car park, where the Military Road crosses right beside the falls

Lough Tay is called the Guinness Lake because it is dark peat water with a bright white sand shore at one end, and after the Guinness family, who owned the Luggala estate around it from 1937 until it was sold in 2019 — you see it from the R759 viewpoint, not from the shore. The R759 runs above it to the Sally Gap, where it meets the Military Road, one of the highest and most exposed roads in Ireland, with nothing on either side but blanket bog. Turn south on the R115 and the Glenmacnass Waterfall drops 80 metres in three stages right beside the road, with a car park at the top of the falls.

Lough Tay and Glenmacnass: Wicklow's High Road

Cycle Sally Gap, one of two road passes crossing the Wicklow Mountains, on the R759 Military Road

Climb Wicklow Gap (475m) on the R756, a category 3 climb in Tour de France terms, linking Dunlavin and Glendalough

Finish at Glencree, an 1806 military barracks turned reformatory and now the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation

Log the full 120km route and roughly 2,400m of climbing across all three passes

Only two road passes cross the Wicklow Mountains and this ride takes both of them in a day, plus Glencree — about 120km and 2,400m of climbing. Sally Gap goes over on the R759 Military Road with nothing but blanket bog either side. Wicklow Gap tops out at 475m on the R756 between Dunlavin and Glendalough, a category 3 climb in Tour de France terms. And the day finishes at Glencree, where an 1806 military barracks became a reformatory and is now the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation.

Sally Gap, Wicklow Gap and Glencree in One Day

Walk up the Great Sugar Loaf from the main car park on its south-western side

Scramble the last section of loose quartzite to the summit

Look north over Bray and Dublin Bay and west into the Wicklow Mountains

Find out why the cone shape has nothing to do with volcanoes

Everybody who drives the N11 past Kilmacanogue assumes the Great Sugar Loaf is an extinct volcano. It is not. At 501m it is a cone of quartzite — an erosion-resistant metamorphosed deep-sea sediment that simply outlasted everything around it, leaving the shape behind. It is a short walk in, a scramble up the final cone, and the whole of Dublin Bay and the Wicklow Mountains laid out from the top.

The Great Sugar Loaf: The Cone That Is Not a Volcano

Walk the Italian Garden down to Triton Lake

Find the Japanese gardens and the Pepperpot Tower

Find the pet cemetery the Wingfields kept

Walk to the foot of Powerscourt Waterfall, 121 metres high

Powerscourt, above Enniskerry, began as a 13th-century castle and was remodelled by Richard Cassels between 1731 and 1741; a fire in 1974 left it a shell until it was restored in 1996. The gardens are the reason to come. Mervyn Wingfield inherited the estate in 1844 at the age of eight, and when he came of age he made the gardens you see: the Italian Garden, Triton Lake, the Japanese gardens, the walled gardens, a pet cemetery, and the Pepperpot Tower, said to be modelled on Lady Wingfield's three-inch pepper pot. A few kilometres south, Powerscourt Waterfall drops 121 metres from the Dargle's hanging valley — the second highest waterfall in Ireland.

Powerscourt: The Gardens and the Waterfall

Walk the lakeside paths at the Vartry Reservoir outside Roundwood

Find the Victorian waterworks buildings and the embankment of 1863, and work out how the water reaches Dublin by gravity

Walk Roundwood's main street, one of the highest village streets in Ireland at 238 metres

Drive west to the viewpoint over Lough Tay and Lough Dan under Luggala

Victor's Way, the sculpture garden that used to stand outside Roundwood, is closed for good, and the reason to come now is the water. Roundwood, at 238 metres, is one of the highest villages in Ireland, and beside it lies the Vartry Reservoir: the lower lake was finished in 1863 to supply Dublin, holds 11.3 billion litres and runs 18 metres deep, with a second embankment added 3.5km upstream in 1923. The water still goes by gravity to Stillorgan. Lough Dan and Lough Tay are a few kilometres west, under Luggala.

Roundwood and the Vartry: The Reservoir That Waters Dublin

Walk the full cliff path from Bray seafront round Bray Head to Greystones

Look down on the railway line clinging to the cliff below the path

Climb up to the cross on top of Bray Head for the view back over Dublin Bay

Take the DART back from Greystones rather than walking it twice

The railway round Bray Head was driven along the cliff face in the 19th century and the sea has been working at it ever since. The walking path runs beside and above the line, about seven kilometres round the head from the end of Bray seafront to the harbour at Greystones, with the Irish Sea directly below and no road anywhere near it. The proper way to do it is to walk one way and take the DART back.

Bray to Greystones: The Cliff Walk Round Bray Head

Swim from the Forty Foot Bathing Place in Sandycove — the cold-water swim spot that opens Joyce's Ulysses — checking the tide before jumping from the rocks

Progress to Seapoint, on the shore between Blackrock and Monkstown, a longer sandy-entry swim used year-round by Dublin's sea-swimming community

Finish at the Vico Baths below Vico Road in Dalkey, historically known as the Gentleman's Bathing Place

Compare the three swim spots — Sandycove's rocks, Seapoint's sand, and Dalkey's cliffs — and note which entry and exit you found hardest

Dublin's coastline has three well-known cold-water swim spots within a few kilometres of each other: the Forty Foot at Sandycove, made famous by the opening page of Joyce's Ulysses; Seapoint's long sandy entry; and the Vico Baths below Dalkey's cliffs. Together they make a sea-swimming circuit you can do in a morning — no wetsuit required, but check the tide first.

The Forty Foot: Dublin's Cold-Water Swims

Walk the ramparts of Charles Fort, the bastion fort built between 1677 and 1682

Find out why the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 ended the Nine Years' War

Find Desmond Castle, the French Prison, in the town, and read its story from the street

Drive or cycle out to the Old Head and look out to where the Lusitania went down

Eat in one of the harbour restaurants of Kinsale

In 1601 a Spanish army landed at Kinsale to join Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell, and the battle outside the town ended the Nine Years' War. The harbour is guarded by two forts: James Fort, a 17th-century pentagonal bastion fort on the Castlepark peninsula, and Charles Fort, a star fort of 1677 at Summercove, partly restored. In town stands Desmond Castle of about 1500, known as the French Prison. Out at the Old Head of Kinsale, 11 nautical miles offshore, the U-20 torpedoed the Lusitania on 7 May 1915 and she sank in about eighteen minutes.