Ireland day 1585. Friday 30 January 2026- It’ll Be Grand

Today’s summary	Got up early, at 7am, had a quick cup of tea then spent the next couple of hours doing a final clean, tidy and clearout of the flat. The landlord representatives came at 10 am to do the exit inspection and inventory check. The signs are hopeful but we don’t know yet if we will get the full deposit back or not. Relocated ourselves to the Malahide Grand Hotel where we are staying tonight before taking the ferry back to the UK tomorrow. Lunch in the hotel then a quick walk over the hill and back along the coast. Dinner in the hotel “Coast” restaurant in the evening
Today’s weather	Overcast and breezy with occasional showers and more persistent rain later. Moderate easterly wind. Appx 8c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Over the Hill and Far Away

Commentary

Each day seems to have been a bit more momentous than the last, lately. Moving our things to the UK, saying goodbye to friends, selling the car and – now – moving out of our flat in the “Casino” apartments. It’s been our home for the last four and a half years and its been quite a wrench, I must stay.

But we had a lot to do before we finally checked out. We were up at 7am, just managing to squeeze in a cup of tea and some toast before starting the final clear-out. Absolutely everything we had left in the flat was either shoved into one of our suitcases, taken down to the bins and disposed, delivered to the charity shop or – in the case of our duvet – vacuum-packed and posted to London.

Once everything was sorted, tidied and packed, we did a final hoover round then just as we were contemplating relaxing for a moment or two, at ten o’clock on the dot the doorbell rang and our landlord’s representatives arrived to do the final inspection and inventory check. They professed themselves satisfied – though we still don’t know if we will get our full deposit back or not. But the signs were hopeful. They also gave us the final gas and electricity meter readings so I then had to have a lengthy conversation with Bord Gáis to close our accounts.

Eventually everything was done. At 10:30 am we handed over the keys and, mentally and physically exhausted, we left the flat.

But we weren’t done with Ireland just yet. We have arranged to stay with friends in the UK tomorrow night, on our way back to London. So we will be leaving Ireland tomorrow morning and start making our way over to them. But because the landlord couldn’t do a checkout on Saturday, we were left with a potentially homeless night to fill.

So, rather than spending our last night in Ireland sleeping under the railway-arches, we have decided to splash out and have a night at the Malahide Grand hotel instead. That meant that we had to get all our bags the 500 meters or so from the Casino to the Grand, which we did in two “go”s of manual haulage. Fortunately it wasn’t raining. Luckily, when we got to the hotel, even though it was only 11 am, they had a room ready for us, so we checked in and relaxed over a decent cup of tea for a couple of hours.

Eventually – as breakfast seemed like a long time ago – we went down to the South Side bar (formerly the Matt Ryan bar) for lunch – the seafood chowder and soda bread was tasty and nutritious and just touched the spot, as they say.

In the afternoon, a window of dry weather was forecast, so we decided to head out for a walk through the demesne and over Paddy’s Hill to Portmarnock, for old time’s sake. Unfortunately we didn’t quite make it as far as the hill, because the forecast suddenly changed and rain threatened. So we cut down through Robswall and ended up on the shore near Lithostrotion beach.

Rather than going straight back to the hotel, we called in at Tesco as I had €5.50 worth of loyalty vouchers to spend before we left Ireland. So we treated ourselves to some Pringles and a bottle of Lucozade Sport, to give us a bit of an energy boost on a cold wet day.

Once back at the hotel, we spent a couple of hours winding down with Lucozade and Pringles and a bit of aimless web surfing. It was nice to get a bit of down-time at last!.

Dinner tonight is in the hotel’s “Coast” restaurant. We have eaten there before and enjoyed it so we are looking forward to seeing what’s on the menu tonight. Then I think we will retire early, as another early start beckons tomorrow. I think once we do finally make it back to the UK for the last time, we will both be quite worn out and in need of a bit of rest and recuperation. That might take a while, perhaps, but I’m sure that, in the end, “it’ll be grand” – to coin a phrase.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Our living room. It’s not been a bad flat. It’s met all our needs though I don’t think we would ever choose to live quite so close to a railway station again	Inspecting Dawson’s Corner – the flowerbed where I planted out the bulbs from our balcony in the Secret Garden (it’s just visible to the right of Val’s arm)

Here we go again. Iarnród Éireann are going to be doing yet more engineering works, meaning sleepless nights for the occupants of the Casino apartments. And more is to come, apparently. Val has got wind from her contact at Irish Rail that five solid weeks of night time engineering works are in the offing later in the spring. I am so glad that it won’t be our problem any more	The Casino Model Railway museum is getting a new hairdo. Apparently the man on the roof is treating the thatch with copper sulphate – needed to keep it in good condition. It’s nice to see that Fingal are looking after it properly

If you look carefully, you might just be able to spot the engineer scrambling about at the top of the mast next to the Garda station. Sooner them than me!	*Our last walk along the coast for a while. Here we are, above Lithostrotion* beach**

Looking over to our home for the last four and a half years. Our apartment was the one with the balcony on the second floor, right in the middle of the picture