Kilmainham Gaol or Glendalough?
 

My husband and I will be in Ireland for 7 days and spending 3 days/nights in Dublin. On day 1, we will explore the city -- Trinity College, Guinness Tour, Temple Bar. On Day 2, we plan on doing the Newgrand Tour with Mary Gribbons.

On Day 3, we have a tough decision. Ideally, we'd be able to visit Wicklow/Glendalough AND Kilmainham Gaol as both are highly recommended but not sure if that is feasible. One possibility is if we go with Paddywagon tours on a half day tour to Wicklow/Glendalough, then return to Dublin to visit Kilmainham Gaol. I don't know when they drop us back off in Dublin so not sure if that is possible.

IF we had to choose between Kilmainham Gaol and Glendalough, which one would you choose? Thanks.

My advice is take the half day tour to Glendalough and visit Kilmainham in the afternoon. Last admission to the Gaol is 1700 during summer.

I have done the bus tour to Glendalough several times and it is worthwhile.

Both are important in Irish history and well worth a visit.

Kilmainham Gaol should be booked in advance. For example, August looks like this at this point: https://kilmainhamgaol.admit-one.eu/...TOUR&mn=201808. You notice many time slots are already sold out. If you look just a day ahead, for example booking June 21st on June 20th, you see all slots before 16:30 are sold out.

thank you! i'm so happy we do not have to choose and we can do both in 1 day. it would have been a really tough decision.

Coincidentally, I just came back from Ireland a few weeks ago (my first time) and visited both places, so I'm in a good position to help. To answer your main question specifically, given the choice I would give the nod to Kilmainham Gaol, but if so, would HIGHLY recommend you first take the General Post Office (GPO) tour just across the Liffey River. For a small fee, you'll get a wonderful tour of this HQ of the Easter Uprising and learn and appreciate the names of the main movers and shakers. Later, you'll see and hear about them as the martyrs in the Kilmainham Gaol. ALSO (and word to the wise), you absolutely SHOULD make a reservation for the KG online. The tours do sell out (and they are taken in lots of about 15 or so people each perhaps 4 times and hour in shifts).

While there in Dublin I did take a separate excursion with Collins Tours (booked through ViaTours) to Glendalough. Although the itinerary from Dublin was to visit the Wicklow Mtns, stop/visit Glendalough (actually pronounced GLEN-dah-lock), then to Kilkenny (for a few hours) then return to Dublin by around 5pm, I actually stayed overnight in Kilkenny and just caught the train back to Dublin. In any event, while pretty and serene, Glendalough was fairly stark and the ruins themselves were more or less sparse. It depends on what you yourself prefer. While I love history, I much more enjoy connecting with modern history (say, from the 1700s and beyond) as opposed to more or less ancient history (Kevin founded Glendalough in 498AD). But undoubtedly, both are fascinating places.

If you can indeed travel to Glendalough and return no later than mid-afternoon, AND have a reservation for Kilmainham in place, by all means go for both! I mean, make that extra effort because, uh, when will you be there next?

Enjoy!

Mike

Thanks Mike! This is super helpful. Also, good to know about the GPO tour!

I did both back in March last year.
I do think if you have time to do both, definitely do it. They’re both really cool and I enjoyed them both.

If you had to pick between the two, I would recommend Glendalogh. My husband and I did that on our last day in Ireland. We kind of discovered it last minute and decided to make time for it on a whim. I am SO glad we did. It is a really neat town full of so much history, and I’m not really a history buff. (Hubby is though). We walked around the town for about 2 hours. There was so much to explore between reading the headstones and there is even a restaurant inside the lodge you could go to. (We didn’t eat there so I can’t vouch for how good it is) It is a cool monk town.