Vartry Reservoirs, Roundwood

There are two Vartry reservoirs, which for ease of typing I will call the Upper Lake and the Lower Lake. There are a number of loop walks you can do. I'll describe three here.

The walks start and end in Roundwood village. This is reachable by bus. If you come by car, there is plenty of parking in marked spaces along the main street. The listed distances include this walk from and back to Roundwood.

There are three routes described here. They are all basically the same but the shorter ones skip certain sections:

• Short route - 8.4km - most of the lower lake
• Medium Route - 11.2km - all of the lower lake, the dam of the upper lake.
• Long Route - 16.2km - all of the lower lake, most of the upper lake

Route

1. Start at Roundwood. Head north towards Dublin and Enniskerry, then turn right onto the R765 towards Kilcoole. After 500m, you arrive at the Lower Lake. The road crosses the lake on a bridge here. Don't cross the bridge.
2. Turn right at the green gate onto the path around the lake and continue with the lake on your left side.
3. After about 3km you come out onto a road. Turn left. This road runs along the top of the dam. On your left is the lake. On your right is a drop down to the water treatment plant (not open to the public) where the water is filtered through sand beds before entering the water supply. About half way along the dam on the left you will see the stone tower where the water is taken out of the lake and brought by an underground pipe to the filter beds.
4. At the T-junction, turn left.
5. After about 400m, the road crosses a narrow part of the lake. Just after this, go through the gap in the wall on the left and resume the path around the lake.
6. After another 3km, you reach the other end of the bridge you encountered in step 1.
7. For the Short Loop, cross the bridge now and return along the road to Roundwood.
8. For the Medium and Long Loops, walk away from the lake along the road for a few yards, then continue on the path around the lake.
9. After another 1km or so, you reach the end of the lower lake. The path bends around to the right and climbs up to the end of the upper dam.
10. At the top of the dam, you can choose the medium or long routes:
11. For the Medium Loop, turn left and walk along the dam. This will bring you to step 15.
12. For the Long Route, continue around the upper lake, keeping the lake on your left.
13. At the bridge over the upper lake, cross the bridge.
14. At the other side of the lake, continue on the road for 100m, then go through the gate on your left to continue around the upper lake, keeping the lake on your left.
15. At the other end of the upper dam, find the path that descends to the bottom of the dam. Go down it and rejoin the path around the lower lake.
16. Continue along the lower lake to the first bridge.
17. At the bridge, turn right and return to Roundwood.