Overview
Lough Tay looks like a giant pint of Guinness – dark water, a collar of white sand at one end – and that isn’t quite an accident: the Guinness family, who owned the estate, imported the sand. What most visitors don’t realise until they arrive is that you can’t get down to the lake itself. It’s private Luggala land. What you get, and it’s plenty, is the view from the road above.
The lake sits in a deep trough between Djouce Mountain and the granite cliffs of Luggala, in the Wicklow Mountains. The public land along the R759 – the Sally Gap road – has several pull-in viewpoints and car parks. For the classic shot with the least fuss, the elevated Lough Tay car park gives the most direct line to the water; with children in tow, the Lough Tay Viewing Point is the safest, set back from the drops. Either way, come before 10am at a weekend – the car parks are small and fill fast, and the road is too narrow and busy to park on.
The name and the Guinness lake
Long before it looked like a pint, the lake was on the maps: the 1650s Down Survey records it as ‘Logh Tea’. The ‘Guinness Lake’ name is newer and has two roots. The estate around it belonged to the Guinness family – Ernest Guinness bought Luggala in 1937 as a wedding present for his daughter – and it was they who shipped in the white sand for the northern beach, giving the dark water its stout-and-head look.
The shore holds a quieter piece of history too: the grave of Tara Browne, whose death in a 1966 car crash gave John Lennon the opening lines of the Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life’. It is on private estate ground and not open to visitors.
On screen
The valley has drawn film crews for fifty years. Lough Tay stood in for the Viking settlement of Kattegat in the TV series Vikings, and John Boorman used it for Zardoz (1974) and Excalibur (1981); more recently it featured in the 2024 Netflix film Irish Wish with Lindsay Lohan, which gave the spot a fresh surge of online interest.
Long before the cameras, the view stayed with the philosopher Bertrand Russell, who first saw it as a boy and returned half a century later – only to decide, from a wooded vantage point, that you can’t truly renew an old memory.
Walking trails
The J.B. Malone car park is the trailhead for most walks here.
- Djouce Mountain – a steeper climb to the summit trig point, with the best aerial view of Lough Tay laid out below.
- The Wicklow Way – Ireland’s oldest waymarked long-distance trail runs straight through, with a boardwalked stretch by the Malone memorial. Walk a short section between viewpoints, or take on the full 131 km.
There is no public walking route from here down to Lough Dan. The tracks that appear on walking sites cross private farmland and the Luggala Estate, and the landowners do not permit public access.
The J.B. Malone memorial and boardwalk
A short walk from the car park, the J.B. Malone Memorial marks the man behind the Wicklow Way. John James Bernard Malone (1913–1989) was a civil servant and army cartographer who wrote a weekly hill-walking column for the Evening Herald for decades and pushed for proper walking routes; the Wicklow Way, opened in 1982, was the result. The memorial is a granite plaque and a wooden seat, reached by a boardwalk of old railway sleepers that protects the peat underneath and gives a firm, level surface – manageable for buggies and, with reasonable mobility, wheelchairs. From here the view runs east across Lough Tay, with the Great Sugar Loaf on the skyline to the north.
Viewpoints and parking
Several free car parks line the Sally Gap road, all first-come-first-served, all quick to fill in season; a newer car park near the Luggala estate was added to ease the safety problems that came with big crowds.
- Ballinastoe Woods car park – across the road from the main view; the land opposite is private, with steep drops, so take real care.
- Lough Tay car park – an elevated, direct line to the lake and the most popular quick-photo stop, but small.
- J.B. Malone car park – the trailhead for the Djouce and Wicklow Way walks.
- Lough Tay Viewing Point – the safest and most family-friendly, where you can see the lake clearly without stepping onto private land or near the drops.
A word of caution: some viewpoints have sudden, sheer drops, and the narrow R759 carries heavy tourist traffic. Keep back from the edges, mind children, and watch for people stepping onto the road.
Getting there
By car – about 55 minutes from Dublin city centre: the M50 south, onto the M11, then the R759 (Sally Gap road) through Roundwood to the car parks.
By bus – the Dublin–Glendalough service stops at Roundwood, but from there it’s a steep walk of well over an hour to the viewpoint with no formal footpath, so boots and rain gear are essential. Several guided half-day tours from Dublin include Lough Tay as part of a wider Wicklow Mountains loop.
Can you swim in Lough Tay?
No. The lake and its shore are private Luggala estate land and there is no public right of way down to the water, so there is no legitimate way to reach it for a swim. The white sand at the northern end is on private ground too. What is public is the roadside above: the viewpoints and car parks along the R759 are on public land and give the view the lake is famous for.
Wicklow does have open water you can swim in. Lough Bray, off the Military Road, is a recognised wild-swimming spot reached from public ground. Vartry Reservoir near Roundwood is a working drinking-water reservoir and closed to swimmers. Lough Dan and Coon Beach are private, like Lough Tay. Our guide to swimming in Ireland’s lakes covers the access position and the nine lakes in the country that are monitored bathing waters.
Practical information
- Facilities – none at the car parks: no toilets, no café. Take your litter home and bring a picnic.
- Dogs – welcome on the public paths but on a lead throughout, to protect ground-nesting birds and the peatland.
- When to come – late summer (July–August) brings heather to the slopes; autumn turns them gold and amber; winter can deliver snow-capped peaks but short daylight and fast-changing weather.
- Photography – early or late light sharpens the contrast between the black water and white sand; a polarising filter deepens the tones.
Nearby attractions
- Ballinastoe MBT – Wicklow’s main mountain-bike trail centre, a short drive on.
- Glenmacnass Waterfall – a long cascade in an open valley, about 25 minutes away.
- Powerscourt Waterfall – Ireland’s highest waterfall, roughly 20 minutes away.
- Lough Ouler – a heart-shaped lake on a gentle loop, about 30 minutes to the car park.
- Glendalough – the monastic valley a little to the north, an easy add-on to the day.
If you do only one thing, stand at the Lough Tay Viewing Point in the first hour after the car park opens, before the coaches arrive – the light is better and so is the parking.