Blessington Lakes and the Wicklow Mountains

Last Saturday we decided to go for an impromptu drive into the countryside around Dublin and north County Wicklow. We headed for the picturesque area of Blessington, and the famous lakes, which are nestled in the Wicklow mountains. The lakes are actually artificial and were formed 50 years ago by the creation of a dam which flooded the valley. They now provide hydroelectric power and drinking water to parts of county Dublin.

There is a road around the lakes, unimaginatively called “Lake Drive” which gives you a great view of the water and also the surrounding countryside. We really are blessed in Ireland with some spectacular scenery, all of which isn’t very far away from the centres of population. Despite having grown up in Co. Wicklow, I hadn’t actually been in this part of the countryside before, and it really is breathtaking. Parts of it look like what you would expect to see somewhere in Norway, or some other place like that. 

I had my camera with me (of course) and I took a few photos. I hadn’t set out to do some proper landscape photography, so I wasn’t really fully equipped. The day was quite hazy, and it wasn’t the best time of the day for landscape shots either (early afternoon), but I still managed to get a few that I was reasonably happy with.