Crone Forest towards Powerscourt Waterfall

This week I'm on holiday again so we looked for a new place to go for a walk.  We chose the path through Crone Forest towards the Powerscourt Waterfall - part of the well-marked Wicklow Way.  I must say I enjoyed it as much as our regular walks through Glen of the Downs and even the wonderful day we spent at Glendalough recently.

The walk was a marvellous combination of woodland trail and open vistas.  From here you could look all the way down to the sea.  

Its another enchanted forest, with the same lovely woodland I've enjoyed so much on our other walks.

I thought we would be able to walk all the way around to the top of the waterfall but that isn't possible on this trail.  There were places where we had a great view of it, but always from a distance.  Unfortunately the sun was directly in front of me when I tried to photograph the waterfall and at this time of year the sun is quite low in the sky so it wasn't possible to take a picture that isn't hazy. 
 

The walk varies a lot as you meander along.  That was one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much - it changes in atmosphere and mood around every corner.  

When we finally made our way down to the river (Dargle) we discovered we could go no further.  The bridge has been damaged and pushed to one side by floods (not sure if this happened when we had torrential rain recently).  There wasn't an obvious place to cross so we stopped here.

It was a lovely place to sit for a while in the sun and enjoy the day.  There is a remote, almost desolate beauty to this place that I found incredibly appealing.

The path is back up the hill to the tree that stands like a beacon at the top!

Just like Glendalough some of the forested area has been cleared.  I'm not sure if this is also an exercise in removing alien vegetation.  It has left the top of this hill looking like something out of a strange fantasy tale - you could almost feel the magic crackling in the air. 
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Two nice benches positioned just as you reach the point (walking the other way) when the waterfall first comes into view.

Autumn colours still everywhere to be seen...

And of course more of the fairy tale trees that I adore so much.