The Wicklow Heather Restaurant, Glendalough.

Review

The Wicklow Heather is situated in the village of Laragh, just beside Glendalough, which surprisingly is the second most visited tourist site in Ireland after Blarney Castle. Unlike other tourist hotspots though, Glendalough is unspoilt, and that goes for the Wicklow Heather as well – honest, good food at value for money prices.

The Wicklow Heather is a pretty building with white stuccoed walls and arches. Outside there is a large terrace, which is wonderful on a good day, while inside the décor is more traditional, with lots of old antiques and curios. They also have a dedicated writer’s room, where some of the fairly impressive collection assembled by owners John and Betty Kenny is on display. Some of the treasures include first editions of works by Joyce as well as personal items such as the bracelet made for Joyce by Nora Barnacle, and which he wore during his lifetime.

It’s a big dining room and it’s divided into sections. We have found ourselves in the Wicklow Heather more than once recently, and all the tables are well spaced and comfortable. The menu is quite long, there’s a page of starters, one and half of main courses and another half page of salads and side orders. And then there’s a whole page of daily specials, so choosing can take a bit of time.

To give you a flavour of what to expect, starters include seafood chowder, warm goats cheese salad, venison sausage, crab cakes or prawn and crayfish Pil-pil. They are all priced around the €7 mark. Moving onto the main event, choices here include a choice of locally sourced steaks from a local farm in Aughrim, just down the road. Seafood choices include organic salmon and there is usually a catch of the day. You might also be tempted by duck breast or saddle of Wicklow venison, while there is a choice of four very good vegetarian options. All the desserts are home-made and the rhubarb crumble, banoffi or the fresh brownies are always worth a try.

On our recent trips we have enjoyed their hand-made pappadelle pasta with wild mushrooms and baby spinach along with their butternut squash ravioli. The duck breast is especially good, while for the committed carnivore the steaks really are very nice indeed. The specials we mentioned earlier change fairly regularly, and you can expect to find, amongst others, the French onion soups we enjoyed, while the fish and chips - deep fried haddock with mint peas and hand-cut chips, or the traditional local corned beef and cabbage is a rare threat these days.

The Wicklow Heather is a fully licensed premises, but they also have a well chosen wine list and a special Irish Whiskey selection to please any aficionado. They open for breakfast lunch and dinner seven days, and expect it to be very busy in summer.

For those thinking of visiting Glendalough for more than one night, John and Betty also run Trooperstown Wood Lodge Guesthouse just down the road, which is a very luxurious base from which to explore Glendalough and guests can avail of their free shuttle service. You can check out Trooperstown at here They are running a special offer at present of 2 nights B&B and one dinner in the Wicklow Heather for €99 pps.