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Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow

Rathdrum is an attractive village that is pitched high on the western side of the beautiful Avonmore valley in County Wicklow. Rathdrum is served by mainline train and bus from Dublin and Rosslare.

It offers the tourist majestic views of the River Avonmore, which flows through the Vale of Clara. The town has fine shops, crafts, restaurants and evening entertainment and is the film location of films like “Michael Collins”, “A Love Divided” and “Durango” shot here. Rathdrum is an ideal base for exploring Wicklow by car, bike, horse or best of all, on foot. Right in the heart of Wicklow’s mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers and lakes, the whole area is an activity paradise.

Rathdrum was the birthplace of Charles Stewart Parnell, one of the greatest political leaders of modern Irish history. Visitors are introduced to Avondale House by way of a video presentation of the life of Parnell, which is followed by a stroll around this historic house. The house is set amongst the Avondale Forest, which is excellent for both picnics and walking. In the town there is the Parnell National Memorial Park.

Rathdrum is an ideal location for hill walkling, cycling, canoeing and touring.

West of Rathdrum lies the scenic valley of Glenmalure, the longest glacier valley in either Ireland or Britain. Shadowed by the mighty Lugnaquilla (927m) its inhospitable terrain provided safe haven for rebels like Fiach McHugh O’Byrne who in 1580 defeated 800 English soldiers in the Battle of Glenmalure. Now a walkers paradise it is situated on the famous Wicklow Way Walk.

Gardens

Knockmore

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Below a small Palladian house looking out to Dublin Bay, lie steep stone terraces, built in the nineteenth century. Hundred year old trees give the three acre garden a romantic setting. Here are many unusual features: a ...

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Golf

Druids Glen Golf Club

Newtownmountkennedy, Co. Wicklow
Course Type: Parkland / Heathland

Druids Glen Golf Resort consists of Druids Glen Golf Course, Druids Heath Golf Course, Woodstock House and the Druids Glen Resort hotel. The Resort is ideally located just 30 minutes south of Dublin in County Wicklow, known as the Garden of Irela ...

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Self Catering

Avon Ri Blessington Resort

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What's On

BrookLodge Farmers Market - County Wicklow

Brooklodge Farmers Market

BrookLodge Hotel, Macreddin village, County Wicklow

Organic food markets, held on the first Sunday of the month, noon-5pm (April - October).

M ...

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Tourist Attractions

Avondale House & Forest Park

Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow

Avondale House was built in 1777 for Samuel Hayes and when he died in 1795 the house passed to the Parnell Family. It was at Avondale that Charles Stewart Parnell, one of the greatest political leaders of modern Irish history, was born in 1846. ...

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Wedding Venues

Roundwood Inn

Roundwood, Co. Wicklow

Jurgen and Aine Schwalm’s 17th century inn in the highest village in the Wicklow Hills has a style that is all its own, and a dedicated band of followers who love everything about it: the public bar with its own snug and open fire, the stur ...

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