Discovering "another" Wicklow... Baltinglass

It's been a while since my last post... and I apologise. I have been working on the blog these last weeks though: collecting some material for future posts and making tons of pics.

But mostly I have been busy taking care of the new member of the family: a puppy that we have just adopted! And believe me when I say it is a lot of work!

Meet "TheDog"

After a few weeks living together, things seem to be going back to normal, or at least not so hectic as during the first days, but our routines have changed a little bit: we have always liked packing a few pieces of fruit, and a few sandwiches and going away to explore the "unknown", but now it has become almost a must to go out so "TheDog" can have her share of fresh air and burn as much energy as the kids if not more... so we can all sleep well at night.

With that in mind, last weekend we went to discover the west side of County Wicklow and ended up in Baltinglass.

I have to say -and I apologise in advance to all locals- that for us Wicklow was basically Bray, Greystones, the Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough and that was it.... but I was wrong! There is more Wicklow beyond the popular areas of the Wicklow Mountains and it is worth exploring it.

My kids had been to Baltinglass Outdoor Education Centre just before the summer and they liked the area so we went for a walk with TheDog on Sunday.

This is what we found:

Fantastic Baltinglass Abbey, beside the river Slaney. Founded in 1148 by Dermot McMurrogh, King of Leinster, who brought Cistercian monks from Mellifont Abbey, located close to Drogheda in Co. Louth.

The views of the remains of the abbey are stunning from every angle.

We also liked St Mary's church, right beside the abbey.

But apart from the history lesson we learnt, we would also recommend a short walk towards river Slaney, where you'll find a couple of benches where you can relax and have something to it while your children/pet can play around (there is a nice spacious lawn out there).

The weather did not help much, but we took the most out of it! You know what they say: there is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.

A stroll around the village is also nice ;-)

Do come and visit this part of County Wicklow... it will not deceive you