Glenmalure is a 20-kilometre long glacial valley in the southern sector of the Wicklow Mountains and is one of the longest glacial valleys in Ireland. A number of adjoining hanging valleys, most notably the Fraughan Rock Glen, feed into Glenmalure valley, that were formed by feeder glaciers in the last Ice Age. The valley runs from the north-west down to the south-east. Its western flank is dominated by the large massif of Lugnaquilla, the County Top for Wicklow, and the Provincial Top for Leinster. The steep walls of its eastern flank are the western slopes of Lugduff, and Mullacor, who also bound the neighbouring Glendalough valley. The head of the Glenmalure valley is bounded by a "boggy" horseshoe formed by Camenabologue, Table Mountain, and Conavalla. A number of ancient trails called Table Tracks run between Glenmalure valley, via the cols between Table Mountain and Conavalla mountain, to the Art O'Neill's cross area, thus crossing the "central spine" of the entrie Wicklow mountains range.
Geology
Glenmalure valley covers an area underlain by the late-Caledonian Leinster Granite bedrock and wallrocks. This granite is part of the "Lugnaquillia Pluton", one of the five plutons that comprise the Leinster Granite, and various granite varieties occur along the valley. The wallrocks consist of various metasedimentary lithologies of the Ordovician Maulin Formation. The granite is cut by slightly younger quartz veins containing lead and zinc mineralization. The valley itself and the glacial features within it date from the last Ice Age. The base of the valley has a number of cross-valley moraines, as well as lateral moraines along the southwestern side of the valley.
Recreation
Glenmalure is a base for hill walking and mountain climbing activities in the area. The An Oige Glenmalure Youth Hostel, situated at the intersection with the Fraughan Rock Glen, is open during the summer months, and dates from 1903 when it was a hunting lodge; several notable figures have stayed in the premises, including Countess Markievicz, Maud Gonne, her son Sean McBride, Eamon De Valera, and W. B. Yeats. The 15–kilometre 5–6 hour Glenmalure Loop is described as "the most scenic circuit to Lugnaquilla". It starts in the Baravore car-park at the head of the valley and summits Lugnaquilla via the cliff–fringed hanging valley, Fraughan Rock Glen ; but returning via Cloghernagh, and down to the scenic Arts Lough, described as "one of the region's most beautiful sights", before descending back to the start of the Fraughan Rock Glen.
History
Glenmalure contained the stronghold of the Gabhail Raghnal branch of the O'Byrne clan at Balinacor. It was the site of the Battle of Glenmalure in 1580, when an English force unsuccessfully tried to take Balinacor, home of the rebel chieftain Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne. It was the worst defeat suffered by an English army in Ireland; they were completely routed with losses of between 500 and 1,000 officers and men, including Sir Peter Carew the younger. A boulder near the Military Road crossroads is carved with an inscription commemorating Fiach MacHugh on one side and Michael Dwyer on the other side. South of this junction on the road to Rathdangan and Aughrim lies the , built by the British army in an attempt to capture rebels after the 1798 rebellion.
