Overview
The Cloghoge drains a remote corner of the Wicklow Mountains. It rises on the slopes of Tonduff Mountain, feeds Lough Tay and then Lough Dan, and belongs to the Avoca river system in County Wicklow. The valley between the two lakes is part of the privately owned Luggala Estate, and there is no public right of way through it. This page is here for what the place is, not as a walk to plan.
History & background
The valley was once heavily settled. Stone walls and cottage foundations line the riverbanks, and a white-washed cottage ruin stands on the gorse-clad bank near where the river runs into Lough Dan. The landscape is often described as a fossilised 18th and 19th-century farming landscape. Local history offers two explanations for the abandonment: the reprisals after the 1798 rebellion, or the depopulation of the Famine years in the 1840s. Today the fields are grazed by red deer, and the loudest thing is usually the wind.
The valley also has a place in the history of Irish hill walking. J. B. Malone, who mapped and promoted the Wicklow routes in the early 20th century and laid out much of what became the Wicklow Way, is remembered by the J.B. Malone Memorial.
The geology is easy to read in the landscape: as far as Lough Tay the bedrock is mainly schist, but above that, up to the source on Tonduff, it is Wicklow granite, which gives the range its rounded shoulders. The river’s clear, oxygen-rich water supports wild trout.
Access
The valley is private and there is no public right of way. The estate land is private, and we do not describe routes through it. The valley is part of a Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area, and its archaeology, including the field walls and cottage ruins, is unprotected from casual foot traffic.
For a view over Lough Tay, use the marked paths in Ballinastoe Woods towards the J.B. Malone Memorial. For information on the wider area, see the Wicklow Mountains National Park page.
Where to walk instead
- Glendalough – waymarked trails through a comparable glacial valley, all on public ground.
- The Wicklow Way – the waymarked long-distance route passes along the ridge to the east.
- Glenmacnass Waterfall – a roadside stop on the Military Road, a few kilometres south.
- Lough Bray – a short walk in to another glacial lake off the R115.