South Wicklow in 3 Days — Tinahely, Shillelagh & the Valley
South Wicklow is the county's best-kept secret. While coach parties queue at the Glendalough car park, this corner of Wicklow — the upper Derry River valley, the oak woods above Tinahely, the quiet roads between Shillelagh and Aghowle — sees a fraction of the visitors and offers some of the finest, least crowded walking in Leinster. Three days based in Tinahely, sleeping in the same bed each night, exploring a different pocket of the landscape each day.
Tinahely — where to stay
Tinahely is a handsome Georgian market town on the River Derry, about 75 km south of Dublin. Its wide market square — one of the finest in Wicklow — is lined with painted shopfronts, a working pharmacy, a good butcher, two pubs, and the Tinahely Courthouse Arts Centre, one of the most active small arts venues in the county. The Wicklow Way passes directly through the town, and walkers arriving and departing on foot are a familiar sight on the Square.
Our recommended base is Madeline's Accommodation, located on Tinahely Town Square. A beautifully restored historic townhouse, Madeline's offers double, twin and small-double rooms, all with private en-suite bathrooms. Self-service coded entry means you can arrive and depart whenever suits you — ideal if you are driving from Dublin after work on a Thursday evening. Rates are excellent value by Wicklow standards.
Madeline's is the only accommodation in the county centre of Tinahely itself, and its position on the Square — 50 metres from the trailhead of the Railway Walk, 30 metres from the best pub — is genuinely unbeatable for a walking break. Check availability and book at madelinesaccommodation.ie.
Getting to Tinahely
By car: Tinahely is 75 km from Dublin, approximately 80 minutes via the M11/N11 and the R747 through Shillelagh, or via the M50 and N81 through Baltinglass. The R747 route through Shillelagh is the more scenic option — the Derry River valley in the final 15 km is lovely.
By bus: Bus Éireann route 132 (Dublin–Bunclody) stops in Tinahely. Journey time approximately two hours from Busáras. Services are limited — check current timetables at buseireann.ie before travelling.
Day 1 — The Railway Walk and Tomnafinogue Woods
A gentle arrival day — two short, easy walks that together give a strong sense of what makes south Wicklow special, without demanding anything of legs that may have driven an hour and a half to get here.
Morning: The Tinahely Railway Walk
Begin at the trailhead on Tinahely Town Square, 50 metres from Madeline's front door. The Tinahely Railway Walk follows the old Shillelagh Branch railway line — a narrow-gauge line that operated from 1904 until 1944 — along a flat, well-surfaced greenway through farmland and small woodlands south from Tinahely. The route is 5 km one-way (10 km return), but most walkers turn around at the old Kiltegan station site after 5 km, making a comfortable morning walk of 90 minutes.
The railway walk is surfaced and suitable for pushchairs and mobility aids along most of its length. It is particularly good in autumn, when the hedgerows along the old embankments are heavy with blackberries and sloes, and the fields on either side hold fieldfares and redwings freshly arrived from Scandinavia. In spring, the verges are carpeted with primroses.
Back in Tinahely by mid-morning, call into Keogh's on the Square for coffee and a scone — a proper small-town café that has been feeding walkers, farmers and passing cyclists for decades.
Afternoon: Tomnafinogue Woods
Drive or cycle the 6 km south-west to Tomnafinogue Woods near Shillelagh — one of the finest native oak woodlands in County Wicklow, and arguably the best in Leinster outside of Killarney. The Tomnafinogue Woods walk is a 4 km loop through ancient oak, ash and hazel woodland managed by Coillte and the local community. The trail is waymarked and well maintained, with interpretive signs throughout explaining the history and ecology of the wood.
Tomnafinogue is exceptional in spring (bluebells in May are extraordinary) and autumn (the oak canopy turns a deep, warm amber in October and November), but is worth visiting in any season. The woods were part of the Coolattin Estate, seat of the Fitzwilliam family from the seventeenth century, and old estate features — stone walls, ornamental plantings, a remnant avenue — are visible throughout.
After the walk, the village of Shillelagh is five minutes' drive away. Walk its single handsome main street, visit the small Church of Ireland church (notable for its unusual tower), and have a pint or early dinner at the Mangan's Bar on the main street before driving back to Tinahely for the night.
Evening in Tinahely
Tinahely has two good pubs. Byrne's Bar and the Village Inn both serve bar food. On weekends, the Courthouse Arts Centre often has live music or theatre — check the programme at tinahelycourthouse.ie. A quiet evening on the Square, watching the last of the light leave the hills to the west, is one of the pleasures of this part of Wicklow.
Day 2 — Mangan's Loop, Shillelagh and the Wicklow Way
The longest day of the itinerary — a proper hillwalk in the morning, an afternoon in a beautiful village, and the Wicklow Way threading through Tinahely on the way home.
Morning: Mangan's Loop
Drive 8 km north-east of Tinahely to the trailhead for Mangan's Loop — a 12 km waymarked loop walk through the drumlin and valley landscape of north-west Wicklow. The loop takes three to four hours and is rated Moderate, with one significant climb offering expansive views west across the Slaney valley towards the Wicklow–Carlow border hills, and north towards the dark bulk of Lugnaquilla (925 m) on clear days. The terrain is a mix of forest track, open hillside, quiet country lanes and one section of bog path — manageable in walking boots, but do not attempt in runners after rain.
Mangan's Loop is one of the least-visited waymarked loops in Wicklow, which is part of its appeal. You are very unlikely to encounter another walking group. The bird life on the open section is good — look for stonechats on the gorse, and listen for the bubbling call of the curlew, now rare in lowland Ireland but still found in small numbers in these upland margins.
Return to Tinahely for lunch — either at the Square or a packed lunch on the trail — before driving back to Shillelagh for the afternoon.
Afternoon: Shillelagh village and surroundings
Shillelagh (pronounced shi-LAY-lee) is an estate village in the valley of the Derry River, about 8 km south of Tinahely. The name derives from the Irish Síol Éalaigh — the seed or progeny of Éalach — and is also the source of the English word "shillelagh" for the heavy Irish walking stick, traditionally made from the blackthorn or oak of the surrounding woods.
Spend an hour walking the village and its surroundings. The old estate wall of Coolattin Park — the nineteenth-century seat of the Fitzwilliam family, now a golf club — runs along the eastern edge of the village, and a short permitted walk through the estate grounds offers a sense of the extraordinary scale and ambition of the original planting. The parkland oaks here are among the oldest in Leinster.
The Wicklow Way passes through Shillelagh on its route between Moyne to the north and Clonegal to the south. If you walk the half-kilometre from the village centre to the waymarker post at the Raheenakit Forest track, you are standing on a trail that stretches 108 km back to Marlay Park and 19 km forward to Clonegal. Worth a moment's thought.
Evening
Back in Tinahely for dinner. If you are self-catering or cooking at Madeline's, the butcher on the Square (Kehoe's) has excellent Wicklow lamb and locally reared beef. For eating out, try the Courthouse Café if open, or the bar food at Byrne's. On a fine evening, the walk from the Square up the old lane behind the church to the summit of the small hill above the town gives a tremendous view of the surrounding countryside — 20 minutes there and back, and worth every step.
Day 3 — Aghowle, Coollattin and home via Aughrim
The final day is more driving than walking — a loose loop through the oldest and quietest corners of south Wicklow before heading home.
Morning: Aghowle Church ruins
Drive 7 km south-west of Tinahely to the small crossroads at Aghowle. In a field set back from the road, behind a low stone wall, stand the ruins of Aghowle Church — one of the oldest surviving ecclesiastical sites in County Wicklow. The remains of the Romanesque nave and chancel date from the twelfth century, though the site itself is believed to have been a place of early-Christian worship since at least the seventh century. The church is associated with Saint Finian of Clonard, one of the principal figures of the early Irish Church, who reputedly had a connection with this site.
The ruins are unlocked and freely accessible — park on the verge of the road and follow the field path to the site. There are no facilities and no visitor centre, which is precisely the point: this is one of those quiet, largely unvisited places that give south Wicklow much of its character. The grave slabs inside the roofless nave are weathered to near-illegibility; some are medieval, some nineteenth-century. The setting — flat agricultural land with the Wicklow hills rising in the distance — is peaceful in a way that more visited sites rarely manage.
Allow 45 minutes for the visit, including the short walk from the road.
Mid-morning: Coollattin Park
Drive north-east 10 km to Coollattin, near Shillelagh. The Coollattin Estate was one of the great landed properties of south Leinster — originally granted to the Fitzwilliam family in the seventeenth century, it encompassed much of the surrounding countryside and its workers' village, Shillelagh itself, was essentially an estate settlement. The house (now a golf club) is a substantial nineteenth-century mansion, but the real interest here is the parkland: a vast, open landscape of mature oaks, some of which are believed to be three hundred years old or more.
A walk through the Coollattin oak parkland — follow the golf club access road past the clubhouse and into the woods to the east — gives an extraordinary sense of what the ancient woodland of Wicklow once looked like before the clearances of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many of the oaks here are multi-stemmed, having been coppiced over centuries and allowed to regrow. The ground flora in May is exceptional: wood anemone, bluebell, wood sorrel and lesser celandine in quantity.
The golf club itself welcomes non-members to the bar for coffee and light lunches — a useful facility if you need a mid-morning break.
Lunchtime and the drive home: via Aughrim
Head north-east from Shillelagh to Aughrim, 14 km away, for lunch before the drive home. Aughrim is a pleasant small town on the Ow River, best known in history as the site of a significant 1691 Williamite battle — the last major engagement of the Jacobite war in Ireland, fought in the fields east of the town. The Aughrim Interpretive Centre (small, excellent, free) tells the story of the battle. The Lawless Hotel on the main street serves a reliable carvery lunch at weekends and is the most comfortable option.
From Aughrim, the N81 north through Baltinglass and Blessington returns you to Dublin in approximately 90 minutes — a scenic drive that passes Blessington Lakes (the Poulaphouca Reservoir) and the Glen of Imaal. Alternatively, the R753 via Rathdrum and the N11 is slightly faster in good traffic.
A note on the Wicklow Way through Tinahely
The Wicklow Way passes directly through Tinahely on Stage 6 of the official route (Moyne to Shillelagh, 21 km). If you are at Madeline's on the Square and you see walkers with large rucksacks looking slightly weathered, they are almost certainly through-walkers on Day 6 of the seven-day trail — approximately 95 km from Marlay Park, 32 km from Clonegal. The Square is an official resupply and rest stop on the route. Saying hello is encouraged.
Three-day summary
| Day | Activities | Walking distance | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Railway Walk + Tomnafinogue Woods | ~14 km | Easy |
| Day 2 | Mangan's Loop + Shillelagh village + Coolattin | ~14 km | Moderate |
| Day 3 | Aghowle Church + Coollattin Park + Aughrim, then home | ~4 km | Easy |
| Total walking | ~32 km | Easy–Moderate | |
Where to eat in south Wicklow
- Keogh's, Tinahely Square — coffee, sandwiches, the best brown bread in south Wicklow
- Byrne's Bar, Tinahely — reliable bar food, good Guinness, friendly staff
- Courthouse Café, Tinahely Courthouse Arts Centre — open at weekends, good light lunches
- Mangan's Bar, Shillelagh — traditional pub, bar food, worth the 8 km drive
- Lawless Hotel, Aughrim — best carvery lunch in the south Wicklow area at weekends
Related walks and itineraries
Tinahely Railway Walk
Flat, surfaced greenway along the old Shillelagh Branch railway line. Starts 50 metres from Madeline's front door on the Town Square.
Walk the Wicklow Way in a Week
The Wicklow Way passes through Tinahely on Day 6. Our seven-day guide covers all stages from Marlay Park to Clonegal with accommodation at every stop.
Madeline's Accommodation
The ideal base for south Wicklow — beautifully restored historic guesthouse right on the Square, en-suite rooms, self-service coded entry.