Ireland day 0566. Monday 17 April 2023- Natural History *

Ireland day 0566. Monday 17 April 2023- Natural History

Today’s summary	Spent the morning doing loads of washing, then went into Dublin in the afternoon to take a proper look at the Natural History Museum. Went to the airport in the evening to pick up Val from her short trip back to the UK
Today’s weather	Bright and sunny in the morning, clouded over in the afternoon then sunny again in the evening. No rain. Light south easterly wind. Appx 14C

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The blue 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): Natural History and unaided walk

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

I spent the morning doing loads of washing – the main problem actually being in getting stuff dry again. We aren’t allowed to put the drying rack on the balcony, and the tumble dryer is too expensive, so everything has to be draped on chair-backs and radiators around the flat until it’s dry. A real nuisance.

Anyway when that was out of the way, I decided to try going in to Dublin without my crutches or trekking poles, to see how I managed to get on. It turned out OK, and I managed to fit in a good look round the Natural History Museum (or more properly the “National Museum of Ireland, Natural History” while I was there. The giant Irish deer and the hyaenas never fail to impress.

En route I dropped into the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and the National Gallery of Ireland, both of which were interesting. The Academy runs public recitals and the next season starts in May, so I’ll make a mental note to keep an eye on their website and try to book something. The hip held up well, though I’m not sure my physio would totally approve. Still, every journey starts with the first step, as they say.

Off to the airport again later this evening, to pick up Val after her flying visit to London. Just time to get some dinner now!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


On the way to the museum, I dropped in to the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Quite nice in there, and they are going to be doing public recitals from May onwards	The National Museum of Ireland, Natural History. It was closed for repairs until last summer, and even now the upper floor is still out of bounds as the roof is being rebuilt. We had visited briefly last year, but I wanted to have a slightly more thorough look around today. It’s good, though quite small and the exhibits mostly haven’t been updated for over 100 years. In fact it’s sometimes known as “a Museum of a Museum”. Or commonly “The Dead Zoo”

Map showing where giant Irish deer remains have been found in Ireland. This isn’t necessarily where they all lived – the map just shows where they tended to die, be best preserved, and most easily retrieved in fossilised form	Basking shark, now rather the worse for wear

On the way back to Connolly station from the museum, I dropped in to the National Gallery of Ireland to take a quick look at the James Coleman: Still Life, 2013 – 2016 exhibition. I’ve seen it before and still think it’s a bit unremarkable, to be honest	Approaching Connolly station in the sunshine!

Probably the museum’s most well known residents – a trio of Giant Irish Deer skeletons, Megaloceros giganteus, retrieved from the bog. They died out at the start of the Younger Dryas cold snap about 11,000 years ago