To the immediate north lies 'The Murrough', a grassy walking area beside the sea, and the eastern coastal strip.

[2] The eastern coastal strip includes Wicklow bay, a crescent shaped stone beach approximately 10 km in length.

Similar to much of the rest of northwestern Europe, Wicklow experiences a maritime climate (Cfb) with cool summers, mild winters, and a lack of temperature extremes.

A considerable spike of moisture occurs in October and November, each of which records almost double the typical rainfall of April.

In addition, because Wicklow is protected by the mountains from southwesterly and westerly winds, it enjoys higher average temperatures than much of Ireland.

As these winds come from the northern European landmass Wicklow can, along with much of the east coast of Ireland, experience relatively sharp temperature drops in winter for short periods.

The completion of the Ashford/Rathnew bypass in 2004 meant that Wicklow is now linked to Dublin (42 km north) by dual carriageway and motorway.

These factors have led to a steady growth in population of Wicklow and its surrounding townlands while its importance as a commuter town to Dublin increases.

Nevertheless, the Irish patronymics Ó hUiginn and Mac Uiginn (anglicised O'Higgins and Maguigan) could bring a key for the meaning "Meadow of a man called Viking".

[citation needed] During excavations to build the Wicklow road bypass in 2010, a Bronze Age cooking pit (known in Irish as a fulach fiadh) and hut site was uncovered in the Ballynerrn Lower area of the town.

[16][17] According to the Greek cartographer and historian, Ptolemy, the area around Wicklow was settled by a Celtic tribe called the Cauci/Canci.

[15] Vikings landed in Ireland around 795 AD and began plundering monasteries and settlements for riches and to capture slaves.

After the Norman invasion, Wicklow was granted to Maurice FitzGerald who set about building the 'Black Castle', a land-facing fortification that lies ruined on the coast immediately south of the harbour.

The castle was briefly held by the local O'Byrne, the O'Toole and Kavanagh clans[18] in the uprising of 1641 but was quickly abandoned when English troops approached the town.

Sir Charles Coote, who led the troops is then recorded as engaging in "savage and indiscriminate" slaughter of the townspeople in an act of revenge.

[19] Local oral history contends that one of these acts of "wanton cruelty" was the entrapment and deliberate burning to death of an unknown number of people in a building in the town.

Though no written account of this particular detail of Coote's attack on Wicklow is available, a small laneway, locally referred to as "Melancholy Lane", is said to have been where this event took place.

[21] The East Breakwater, arguably the most important building in the town, was built in the early 1880s by Wicklow Harbour Commissioners.

Rail Iarnród Éireann operate six trains per day in each direction from Wicklow railway station.

Services offer connections to most large towns in counties Wexford and Wicklow, as well as a coastal link to Dublin city.