Ireland day 0600. Sunday 21 May 2023- Sugarloaf Slopes *

Ireland day 0600. Sunday 21 May 2023- Sugarloaf Slopes

Today’s summary	I went on a Club walk round the Little Sugarloaf from Kilmacanogue while Val went cycling up to the Howth Summit. Take-away for dinner in evening.
Today’s weather	Warm dry and with lots of hazy sun inland, cold and clammy on the coast. Very light easterly wind. Appx 17C

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): Slopes of Little Sugarloaf DWC

Commentary

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

It was a lovely mild bright dry day today – excellent conditions for a short club walk from Kilmacanogue up and around in a loop on the slopes of the Little Sugarloaf mountain.

I couldn’t persuade Val to join me – she was feeling in need of a bit of a lie-in, which was unsurprising really given she’s been either working or travelling for weeks on end, it seems. Nevertheless, while I was away hiking she did manage a bike ride from Malahide right to the top of Howth Summit, and back. Pretty impressive if somewhat cold, because of the clammy sea-mist which kept shrouding the east coast.

The club walk , by contrast, was further inland and enjoyed perfect mild – even almost warm at one point(!) weather with hardly any wind, no rain, and great views. I picked up a friend in Portmarnock on the way down, and arrived at the meeting point in Plucks car park in plenty of time to get a coffee and croissant before we set off on the walk.

We took it at a leisurely pace, as it was a large (nineteen walkers) and mixed ability group. But it was nice not to be in a rush, and with mild weather and long hours of daylight, it was a delight to linger and savour the route. There was just time for a quick (non alcoholic 🙁 ) drink at Plucks at the end before making a relatively early start back to Portmarnock – as my travelling companion wanted to catch the kick-off Limerick hurling match.

So now we have a whole evening free, and we both have good books – so perhaps a few hours reading followed by a takeaway might be our reward for the endeavours of our respective days?

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


On the ascent, with the Little Sugarloaf ahead	Looking back to the Great Sugarloaf

From a bit high up, looking back across the valley to the west	Round the back of the Little Sugarloaf, looking across to Bray head (the hill on the horizon)

On the way back down again, heading to Kilmacanogue	On the bridge over the busy N11 road on the way to refreshment at Plucks

Testing out a friend’s telephoto monocular attachment for the iPhone to look at the summit of the Little Sugarloaf from Pluck’s car park. It’s a x12 lens and as the iPhone standard lens has a focal length of 24mm (in 35mm terms), this makes it an equivalent of 288mm. Not a bad result, for a hand-held shot