I have been studying at UCD for about 6 weeks now, and with that I have been able to explore more than just Dublin. Coming to study in Europe, I expected that my time would be spent travelling from city to city across Ireland and the continent. And while that is partially true–I have been to Dublin, Galway, Amsterdam, and Edinburgh–I have also found ways to get out of the urban environments that I am used to and explore nature.
Ireland has so much beautiful nature and hiking to offer, the only difficulty is finding a way to access it without a car. I thought that I would be stuck on campus or in the city due to the lack of public transportation to more rural areas, but in reality it just requires a little bit more planning.
So far, I have been hiking in two places around Dublin, both just a 45 minute train or bus away: Howth and Glendolough. These spots offer absolutely unreal views of Ireland that I never expected to see so close to the city center. I especially never expected them to be so easily accessible for someone without a car.
First, to get the Howth–a cute little beach town on a peninsula north of the city–I was able to easily take the bus from campus into city center for just 1€ using my student bus pass, and then walk to the train station and take the Dart train along the coast to the station right in the center of Howth for another 2€. This was a super simple way to get there and allowed me to go with very little planning; no train tickets were needed in advance, just my bus card and a couple of euros loaded onto it.
Howth has a little market on the weekend with lots of vendors for food, jewelry, and souvenirs, but just past the town there is a massive cliff walk with gorgeous views and rolling hills that are hard to imagine being so close to downtown Dublin. I walked a few miles, but there are multiple trails and different viewpoints that would certainly make it worth revisiting. Additionally, I got some fish and chips and brazilian coxinha that I would make the journey again for.
The other place I have been hiking in so far is Glendalough. This was more difficult to get to, and required a private bus and more expensive tickets than the few euros from the Dart train. It is about an hour south of UCD, but the journey goes by fast and looking out the window to see all the farmland and sheep on the side of the road was beautiful and surprisingly entertaining. There are many different trails, but I took the White route which was about 10km and over 400 meters of elevation gain. As someone who hasn’t hiked seriously in years, it was definitely more strenuous than I expected, but the nature absolutely made up for it. There were gorgeous forests, lakes, rock scrambling, and even a herd of deer that I had never seen before eating by the river. There was also an old mining village and some signs explaining the history of the area. It was a long day, but unbelievably worth it.
I hope to find more nature around Dublin and continue exploring in and out of the city. It can be a little more complicated than staying downtown, but the nature of Ireland is so beautiful it is definitely worth the effort.
Katherine Barry
Spring 2026
GW Exchange - University College Dublin
School of Engineering & Applied Sciences
Mechanical Engineering Major