Roundwood: Hiking, Landscape and History

In Roundwood, hiking trails at Vartry Reservoir meet traces of the village’s history and views of the Sugar Loaf and Djouce mountains. If you like to weigh up different activities for your holiday, you’ll find specific differences here: two circular trails at the reservoir, each with its own distance and walking time; a section of the Wicklow Way; and historical details in the village. This lets you decide whether hiking, cultural history or a mix of both should be the focus of your trip.

Circular Trails at Vartry Reservoir

The Roundwood Reservoir Upper Vartry Trail is a 6.6-kilometre circular walk. It is listed as taking about an hour and a half and starts at the reservoir’s Knockraheen entrance. Along the way, the trail offers panoramic views of Sugar Loaf and Djouce. When choosing this circular route, both its manageable stated distance and the specific views of the surrounding mountains are key considerations. If you choose a walk based on what you would like to see along the way, these views are a useful point of reference.

The Roundwood Reservoir Lower Vartry Trail is an easy 7.6-kilometre circular walk, with a walking time of about two hours. Compared with the two reservoir loops, it is longer; at the same time, it is explicitly rated “easy.” The different distances can help you fit a walk into your day’s plans and compare its length with what your travel group has in mind. The approximate walking times are guidelines and should be treated as such.

A Ballaun stone is also one of the features of the Lower Vartry Trail: it is located on the shore of Vartry Reservoir along this route. If you’re interested in older traces in the landscape as well as getting out for a walk, you can keep this find in mind as you explore the loop. This stone by the reservoir is distinct from another Bullaun stone located in Roundwood village.

The Wicklow Way and Other Hiking Options

The Wicklow Way is about 130 kilometres long and runs through the Wicklow Mountains. Its third stage goes from Roundwood to Glendalough. This offers another way to think about hiking in Roundwood: alongside the circular trails at the reservoir, there is a section of a longer route whose stage destination is Glendalough. If you like comparing a single loop with a stage of a longer trail, you can use these different trail formats as a guide without treating them as one combined route.

The nearby Ballinastoe Slí is also an easy circular walk in Ballinastoe Forest. It is 5.2 kilometres long and lies five kilometres north of Roundwood. This adds a forest walk to the options, with a stated distance between those of the two reservoir loops. For your plans, you can distinguish three specific hiking options by distance and trail character: the Lower Vartry Trail loop, the Upper Vartry Trail and the route through Ballinastoe Forest.

Village History and Bullaun Stones

Roundwood developed in the 19th century around the Catholic Church of St Laurence O’Toole. This connection gives the village a historical point of reference that differs from the hiking experiences at the reservoir. The village is also home to a prehistoric Bullaun stone with rock art. Together with the Ballaun stone on the reservoir shore, it offers a cultural perspective on two distinct locations and contexts: a prehistoric stone with rock art in the village, and a Ballaun stone along the Lower Vartry Trail on the reservoir shore.

Several notable examples of Tudor Revival architecture also form part of the village’s character. They add another architectural dimension to the church’s history and the Bullaun stones. If you’d like to discover not only hiking routes but also historical and architectural details during your stay, Roundwood can therefore appeal to different interests without conflating the character of these themes.

Other places to explore include An Láithreach, Rathnew, Boystown, Redcross, Avoca, Enniskerry, Ballyknockan and Hollywood.

For the broader travel overview: County Wicklow.