Throwback to the end of May. There was a sudden sunny spell in Ireland for that weekend. The sun brings out the beauty of this island and the friendliness of its people. A few weeks earlier, we had tried to hike up Djouce Mountain with the kids. At that time it was raining, cold and foggy. We probably only hiked 10% of the route and we went back down.

So on this sunny day, we left the kids at home and headed out to the mountain very early in the morning. The starting point is an hour’s drive from our house. There is also limited car parking so we wanted to be there as early as possible. The sun rises early around this time of the year so it was pretty bright when we got there. We decided to park near Lough Tay Viewing point (J.B. Malone Car Park) and take the shortcut up the steep hill.

The Terrain

The route up to the top of Djouce Mountain is well marked. The first part of the hike is over boardwalks up the first hill. We went downhill then up again. Once over the first hill, the path is gravel. We could see the top of the mountain after that hill. It does not seem like the peak is connected to the current place we are standing. Once we continued hiking, the path hooks left and goes straight up to the top. As we approach the top, don’t follow the path that turns right as it is the Wicklow Way that will go around the mountain.

We had a good view of Dublin and Wicklow from the peak on a good day. Most hikers will take a photo with the iconic concrete block that is used for ordnance survey. We saw people having a picnic at the top. As we were heading down, we saw crowds of people coming up to the top. There were 2 different Cub Scout groups hiking up. We also met a few Malaysians, not dressed for a hike. It seemed they were visiting Ireland and wanted to see the beauty of Wicklow Mountains.

Overall it took us about 2.5 hours to go up and down. It was tiring but not a difficult climb. The heat did contribute to our tiredness. We didn’t feel much pain the day after.