Ireland day 0250. Sunday 05 June 2022- Baldoyle

Ireland day 0250. Sunday 05 June 2022- Baldoyle
Today’s summary A short walk from Sutton to Portmarnock via Baldoyle with the Dublin Walking Club.   A sociable occasion as always.   Especially when we retreated from the rain and ended up in the pub after only an hour.
Today’s weather Grey and wet all day.   Strong easterly wind.   About 11C but feeling colder in the wind and rain
Today’s overview location
(The blue mark shows the location of our route)
Close-up location
(The green 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):
Baldoyle walk in the rain DWC
Commentary

Flaming June.   Well in pretty much every respect, today it wasn’t.   The day dawned overcast and wet, alternating between heavy rain and thick drizzle, and which never really went away.   There wasn’t even a glimmer of sun and the stiff easterly wind, straight off the Irish Sea but feeling like it had come direct from Siberia, pinned the temperatures back virtually into single figures.

So it wasn’t a particularly auspicious day to meet up with the Walking Club at Sutton for a beach walk back to Portmarnock.   Of course, I was wearing shorts – they go on in April and aren’t really allowed to come off until October – so I felt the wind and rain more keenly than the others.   But I told myself that it was only a bit of water – and to be glad I wasn’t high up in the Wicklow mountains in my shorts when the weather was like this.

It was only billed as a short walk today, and I had done much (but not all) of it before.   But these occasions aren’t just about the exercise and the scenery – they are social occasions too, and that’s especially important for me while Val’s out at work.   There’s always lots of news to catch up on – births marriages and deaths of people I have never even heard of, but always endlessly interesting when told by an Irishman (or woman).

There was one section – by the allotments in Baldoyle – which was new to me and especially interesting.   The greenhouse made entirely of recycled drinks bottles, and the magnificent highland cattle mooing spectacularly in the field at the end, were remarkable.  You can of course see the cows in the banner image at the top of the blog.

I was also fortunate that Garry was on the walk today – he’s a local historian so he and I branched off briefly to have a good poke around the site of the old tidal mill at Portmarnock bridge.   He told me that was in use until the mid 1800s and apparently used a vertically mounted turbine to drive the wheat grinding mill.   There was a sluice for impounding the water at high and low tides, so that a steady flow through the turbine could be achieved.  Some of the ruins are just visible through the overgrowth of weeds, even today.

Apparently sometime in the 1700s, the mill owner somehow managed to impound too much water on a regular basis and the resultant flooding made access to a nearby orchard difficult.   The resulting legal case ended up in the House of Lords (remember this was pre-Independence) but I think the final judgement is lost in the mists of time.   I may have mis-remembered some of the details, but it makes a fascinating and reasonably plausible story anyway.

Shortly after the mill exploration, the rain really started teeming down so we retreated into the warmth and comfort of a nearby pub.   I think the initial intention had been to make it a brief stop but after half an hour most of the party were well into their second Guinnesses so at that point the group spilt in two.   I, with a couple of the more abstemious members, headed back out into the tempest to finish the walk off to Portmarnock along the windswept and deserted bank holiday beach.   The others, perhaps more sensibly, stayed behind and settled in to what looked like becoming a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon soaking up the atmosphere of the pub.

So it was a cold wet and – on the face of it – miserable day.   But dig a little deeper, and I actually really enjoyed it.   it was fun, sociable and interesting.   Altogether totally enjoyable.   And although today the weather was truly moan-worthy, it wasn’t at all typical of the weather we have mostly experienced in Ireland.   It’s rare to get a day with no sun at all and lately there have been some blindingly blue and green sparkling spring days.   So all in all I’m counting my blessings, and looking forward to tomorrow, when I’m pretty sure the weather will be much improved.   Come back in 24 hours and see what actually happened!

 

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

There’s a nice promenade all the way from Sutton to Baldoyle – but unfortunately a private landlord along the route has taken exception to people walking along it and has closed it off in no uncertain terms Fabulous greenhouse made of discarded PET drink bottles, in the allotments just outside Baldoyle.   What an excellent idea – reduces waste and no doubt provides good insulation too
With my historian friend Garry – showing me the ruins of the old tidal mill at Portmarnock Bridge over the Sluice River These portakabin-cum-shipping containers have popped up all along the Velvet Strand at Portmarnock, and on Malahide beach.   They house the lifeguards but it’s not exactly Baywatch.   Today they were huddled indoors wrapped in blankets looking gloomily out at the grey sky and wind whipped breakers in the sea.   A bit forlorn, really
Having said that, there were a few hardly souls out today braving the stormy conditions.   But honestly though – even though it’s June, it felt more like February today It’s a Bank Holiday here in Ireland this weekend and normally Portmarnock beach would be heaving.   Today it wasn’t.
The weather was so poor that after just 5km / 3mi we wisely decided to take a break in the pub.   After a brief pause for refreshment a few of us headed back out and finished the walk up to Portmarnock, but the rest were well settled into their second pints by that stage and looked resigned to making afternoon of it.   Still, there are plenty worse ways to spend a Bank Holiday.
Interactive map

(Elevations corrected at  GPS Visualizer: Assign DEM elevation data to coordinates )

Total distance: 5047 m
Max elevation: 6 m
Min elevation: -0 m
Total climbing: 47 m
Total descent: -46 m
Total time: 01:26:53
Download file: Baldoyle DWC simplified corrected.gpx

You can read earlier and later days’ blogs below

Previous day’s blog
Next day’s blog
Ireland home page

 Save as PDF