Typically completed in 5–7 days, it is one of the busiest of Ireland's National Waymarked Trails, with up to 24,000 people a year walking the most popular sections.

In 1977, Malone was appointed to the Long Distance Walking Routes Committee of Cospoir, the National Sports Council and set about making the concept a reality.

[8] He proposed a circular route, dubbed "The Twelve Days of Wicklow", which he considered to be "a journey comparable to that along the celebrated "Pennine Way" but I would say more varied than its north British counterpart".

[9] The route consisted of twelve stages, beginning at Bohernabreena, near Tallaght, Dublin 24, and ending at Stepaside, County Dublin, as follows: Bohernabreena to Baltyboys (near Valleymount), via Athdown;[9] Baltyboys to Ballinclea (near Donard), via Hollywood;[10] Ballinclea to Aghavannagh, via Lugnaquilla summit;[11] a rest day at Aghavannagh;[12] Aghavannagh to Tinahely;[13] a circular day route beginning and ending in Tinahely, via Shillelagh;[14] Tinahely to Avoca;[15] Avoca to Glenmalure, via Greenan;[16] Glenmalure to Glendalough;[17] a rest day at Glendalough;[18] Glendalough to Knockree;[19] and Knockree to Stepaside.

[20] In 1977, Malone was appointed by John Bruton, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, to a committee to develop rural pathways within the Republic of Ireland.

[21] This evolved into the Long Distance Walking Routes Committee (LDWRC) of Cospóir, the National Sports Council, where Malone, acting as Field Officer, set about developing a scheme for a "Wicklow Way" along the lines of what he had proposed twelve years earlier.

[24] The first section of the Way – from Marlay Park to Luggala – was opened by Jim Tunney, Minister of State at the Department of Education, on 15 August 1980.

[5] The state-owned forestry company Coillte has in recent years worked with a number of tourism and voluntary bodies to upgrade sections of the Way that run through its lands.

[42] Similarly, Paul Gosling, who walked the Way for The Independent, found that, "While the long distance path is, on occasion, very attractive, it is not so much hazardous as unadventurous.

[46] It would require sections on unsuitable roads to comprise less than 10% of the total trail and for appropriate support services – accommodation, meals, transport, luggage transfer etc.

[51] The trailhead comprises a map board, beside which is a low wall with a stone stile through which walkers pass in order to make their first step on the trail.

[62] From Knockree on to Clonegal, much of the Way follows the contact point between the granite of the western part of the Wicklow Mountains and the schists and slates of the east.

[63] The trail follows the Glencree River through Seskin Wood, a semi-natural oak and hazel woodland and a habitat for jays.

[67] The next valley to be crossed is Glensoulan which, although uninhabited today, before the Great Famine of the 1840s was home to a small population of cottiers and faint traces of their farms can still be seen in the wintertime when the bracken is low.

[73] From Luggala, the trail passes through a coniferous plantation of spruce and pine on the eastern flanks of Sleamaine and Ballinafunshoge Hills to reach Oldbridge, which crosses the River Avonmore near Lough Dan.

[76] The boreen ends at Brusher Gap, reputed to be a place where locals left food and supplies for Michael Dwyer and his followers when they went on the run after the 1798 Rebellion.

[77] The Way enters Drummin forest, a sitka spruce plantation,[78] where it passes an Adirondack shelter, constructed by Mountain Meitheal, a volunteer group dedicated to trail preservation that has upgraded various sections of the Wicklow Way over the years.

[81] A dense spread of granite boulders litters the riverbed, glacial erratics deposited by melting glaciers at the end of the last ice age.

[82] This stretch of the trail follows an old mass path through a woodland of many native Irish tree species, including oak, rowan, silver birch and willow, carpeted with a forest floor of bilberry, bluebell and hard fern.

[92] The view ahead looks across the Glenmalure valley at Fraughan Rock Glen and Lugnaquilla, Wicklow's highest mountain at 925 metres (3,035 feet).

[95] Crossing the River Avonbeg, the route passes the remains of an old military barracks, built around 1800, and enters Drumgoff Wood.

[105] Passing through a series of gates along the way, the trail follows Coolafunshoge Lane, an old droving path with extensive views of south Wicklow.

[107] The trail follows an ancient cattle droving path around Muskeagh Hill before joining a series of country roads.

[113] The Blackstairs Mountains, whose main peak, Mount Leinster, is distinguished by the television mast on its summit, begin to dominate the horizon.

[115] Urelands Hill is littered with hornblende-rich schist, a legacy of a chain of long-extinct volcanic islands that existed 450–500 million years ago when this part of Ireland lay under the primeval Iapetus Ocean.

[117] The Wicklow Way ends in the village green of Clonegal where a stone bench and a map board, displaying the entire route from Marlay Park, may be found.

[115] The Wicklow Way forms part of European walking route E8 which runs from Dursey Island in County Cork to Istanbul in Turkey.

The Irish section incorporates the Wicklow Way, the South Leinster Way, the East Munster Way, the Blackwater Way and parts of the Kerry Way and the Beara Way.

[126] The record for running the entire distance of the Wicklow Way from Marlay Park to Clonegal is held by Robbie Britton who completed the route on 8 June 2019 in a time of 12:11:07.

[128] There is no public transport available to or from the trailhead in Clonegal, with the closest bus routes serving the nearby villages of Kildavin and Bunclody, County Carlow.