Ireland day 0272. Monday 27 June 2022- Demesne

Ireland day 0272. Monday 27 June 2022- Demesne
Today’s summary Spent  the morning doing domestic chores and shopping and then in the afternoon went to the Castle Demesne to check on the transformation from concert venue to international cricket arena
Today’s weather Cool and overcast.   Moderate southwesterly wind.   Occasional light showers.   About 15C
Today’s overview location
(The blue mark shows the location of my route)
Close-up location
(The green line shows where I walked)
(Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected):
Demesne transformations
Commentary

I hadn’t got plans to head far afield today, having been out and about quite a lot over the last few days.   So I had a leisurely start to the day, then joined a video catch up call with a former colleague back in the UK.   We were speaking for almost two hours and I must say I enjoyed every moment of it.   My friend has recently retired and was busy figuring out how best to enjoy the next phase of his life.   It made me realise, of course, that the “next phase” never really arrives.   You are constantly faced with new challenges and opportunities, so to a large extent you have to make it up as you go along.   I certainly feel as if I am.   I never expected that the “next phase” in my life would involve living in Ireland – nor quite how worthwhile such a move would prove to be.

Once we’d finished speaking, more mundane duties intervened.   There was a whole load of paperwork to deal with first off, then washing, ironing and shopping.   As an aside, I should just add that I am looking forward to having all this paperwork dealt with and out of the way.   I am very much looking forward to a period without the incessant drag of bureaucracy.   It’s take far longer to get everything sorted out than I ever imagined, and it has been the one aspect of coming to Ireland that I really haven’t enjoyed.

Anyway, I quickly got most of the chores out of the way so headed off to the library to renew a couple of the books that Val’s reading at the moment.   While I was there I took a moment to check up about the progress with plans to build a cycleway and path across the Broadmeadow estuary (spoiler alert – there isn’t any) and to order a book that was recommended to me by my friend this morning.   The book is “Madhouse at the end of the earth” by Julian Sancton and according to the man in the library, there are twelve copies in Fingal so hopefully it shouldn’t be too long before it comes in.   I’m looking forward to reading it.

Next I wanted to have a look round Malahide Castle demesne to see what was going on now that the concerts have finished.   I was quite sad, actually, to see the main stage being dismantled today.   OK the traffic and noise was a bit of a nuisance on concert nights, but it really brought the whole town to life.   Anyway, by way of part compensation, a new cricket grandstand has been erected – with a seating capacity for 11,500 – and all the facilities for ODIs, T20Is and IP50s to be held there.   I’m afraid I’m not completely sure what all these things are but I am sure they will be popular in the new “post” Covid world.

But what is particularly impressive is how these huge facilities – the concert venue and the cricket grandstands – could be built quickly from scratch and so relatively unobtrusively.   And the fact that the demesne can swallow a concert venue for 20,000 and a cricket venue for 11,500 at the same time, and with neither really being visible from the outside of the grounds – gives you an idea of just how big the castle demesne actually is.

Well that’s it for a nice easy day today.   Another friend has set me over a book that he’s just written (yes, really!) and I’m going to look forward to reading it tonight – once I’ve had my bacon, egg and beans dinner that is.   Happy times!

 

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

First off I went back to the library to renew some books and also to remind myself about the details of the Broadmeadow Way scheme (the proposed footpath-cum-cycleway alongside the railway viaduct across the Broadmeadow estuary, which doesn’t seem to be making much progress at the moment) Rear view of the cricket stands.   The first match was actually last Sunday – Ireland vs India men.   That explains what the noise coming from the demesne on Sunday evening was – I couldn’t understand it at the time as I knew the concerts had finished but didn’t realise the cricket had started already.   The next match is tomorrow (Tuesday 28 June) but it’s sold out, which is a bit unfortunate as I had thought about going.
The cricket seating has seemingly been pulled together out of nowhere.   I was largely unaware of it being built.   It has a capacity of 11,500 Peering in through a gap in the fence to catch a glimpse of the pitch
The castle slowly becoming visible again as the paraphernalia of the concert venue is spirited away I think this is lace aloe (Aristaloe aristata) which up to today I’ve only ever seen growing in greenhouses in the British Isles.   But this large clump of plants was flowering abundantly outdoors, in a sheltered south facing spot on The Bawn, the road which runs between the castle demesne and Robswall Hill
Just as stealthily as the cricket stands have appeared, the concert venue has disappeared.   This afternoon it was in the final stages of disassembly
Interactive map

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

Total distance: 6752 m
Max elevation: 34 m
Min elevation: 6 m
Total climbing: 106 m
Total descent: -105 m
Total time: 01:24:12
Download file: Checking Out The Demesne compressed corrected.gpx

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