Song
St Kevin of Glendalough
A quiet Irish heritage song about St Kevin of Glendalough, moving from solitude by the Upper Lake to the living memory of monks, pilgrims, stone ruins and the Valley of Two Lakes.
County Wicklow • Place song
St Kevin of Glendalough in Song
St Kevin of Glendalough is remembered as the sixth-century founder of the monastery in the Valley of Two Lakes, a saint whose solitude, prayer and teaching became part of County Wicklow’s living Christian heritage.
✦One place.✦One story.✦One song.
Place Story
About St Kevin of Glendalough
St Kevin stands at the heart of Glendalough’s Christian memory. In the sixth century, he founded the monastery that grew into one of Ireland’s best-known early Christian centres. The story begins in the Wicklow valley, around the Upper Lake and the place now known as St Kevin’s Bed, where tradition remembers him seeking God in solitude and prayer.
But Kevin’s story did not remain hidden in the hills. People came to him for guidance, healing and a way of life, and small monastic communities gradually formed around his witness. Over time, Glendalough became a major monastic and pilgrimage landscape, remembered through its lakes, mountain paths, round tower, medieval churches, old crosses and the pilgrim road.
This Ireland in Song page follows St Kevin not as a fantasy figure, and not as a substitute for church hymnography, but as a real historical and spiritual memory connected with a real Irish place. His hidden prayer became part of the identity of Glendalough: water, stone, mountain, monastery and Christian remembrance held together in one valley.
LOCAL MEMORY
The memory behind the St Kevin of Glendalough song
Glendalough is still encountered as a living landscape rather than only as an archaeological site. Visitors arrive first for the valley itself: the Lower Lake and Upper Lake, the wooded paths, the Wicklow hills, and the quiet movement from water to stone. The Monastic City keeps St Kevin’s name visible through the round tower, medieval churches, decorated crosses, graveyard and old stone remains; these are not abstract ruins but the visible memory of a sixth-century monastic settlement associated with him.
St Kevin’s Church, often called St Kevin’s Kitchen, and the Round Tower give the site a recognisable outline, while St Kevin’s Bed above the Upper Lake keeps the older tradition of his solitude and prayer — though this should be named carefully, because official heritage sources note that the cave may pre-date him. Modern visitors meet the place in different ways: families walking between the lakes, hikers following Wicklow trails, tourists visiting the Visitor Centre, and pilgrims still taking St Kevin’s Way through the hills toward Glendalough.
The song should hold all these layers together: a real Irish valley where scenery, early Christian memory, pilgrimage, ruins, water and mountain paths still speak to one another. It should feel less like a museum label and more like a quiet walk through a place where the story of St Kevin is still carried by the landscape itself.
LYRICS
Lyrics from “St Kevin of Glendalough”
By the lake, by the stone,
Where the Wicklow waters shine,
A quiet prayer began to grow
In Ireland’s green and holy time.
By the Upper Lake he came,
Seeking God in silence there,
No golden crown, no proud name,
Only Christ-light, rain and prayer.
In the narrow cave above the water,
Where the mountain shadows fall,
Kevin kept the hidden vigil,
And the valley heard the call.
From a lonely place of prayer,
A path began to rise,
Through the stones of Glendalough,
Under Wicklow’s quiet skies.
St Kevin of Glendalough,
Teach us the quiet road,
Where two lakes hold the Wicklow sky
And prayer becomes a home.
From the cave above the water
To the city built of stone,
Ireland remembers the saint
Who made this valley known.
People came through wind and rain,
Seeking counsel, hope and peace,
Hands were lifted, hearts were healed,
And the lonely prayer increased.
Monks gathered by the lakeshore,
Learning mercy, psalms and grace,
Till the valley of two waters
Became a holy place.
Not by sword and not by thunder,
Not by silver, not by fame,
But by fasting, love and prayer,
Christ was shining through his name.
St Kevin of Glendalough,
Teach us the quiet road,
Where two lakes hold the Wicklow sky
And prayer becomes a home.
From the cave above the water
To the city built of stone,
Ireland remembers the saint
Who made this valley known.
On the third day of June,
The old bells softly say,
Pilgrims found the mountain road,
And walked St Kevin’s Way.
Where the stones and waters meet,
Where the green hills bend and pray,
A hidden life still sings to us
Across the years today.
St Kevin of Glendalough,
Teach us the quiet road,
Where two lakes hold the Wicklow sky
And prayer becomes a home.
From the cave above the water
To the city built of stone,
Ireland remembers the saint
Who made this valley known.
By the lake, by the stone,
Christ-light in the rain,
St Kevin of Glendalough,
Pray for us again.
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