Ireland day 0653. Thursday 13 July 2023- Admin Hill and Coast

Today’s summary	Morning spent on admin, then walk over Paddy’s Hill to the coast and back on the shore in the afternoon
Today’s weather	Showery with occasional glimpses of sun.   Hardly any wind.   Appx 17c
Today’s overview location (The orange mark shows the location of our route)			Close-up location (The orange 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): Extended Hill and Coast with Val

Commentary

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

A relatively quiet day today.   The morning was spent listening to a podcast and then on admin matters (I hardly dare mention the “T” word), followed by poached eggs on toast for lunch.

The afternoon was altogether more enjoyable – an extended walk through the demesne, up the hill, and along to the coast halfway down the Portmarnock peninsula.  En route back, we got hit by a sudden sharp shower, so we took refuge in a local Spar shop where we failed to resist the temptation of a couple of cups of tea with pains-au-chocolat, which we scoffed in the bathing shelter just across the road.

By the time we had finished our impromptu refreshments it had largely stopped raining so we picked ourselves up and headed back along the remaining stretch of the coast, keeping a keen eye on the dark clouds gathering on the western horizon but which never actually came to anything.

Back in the flat now we are celebrating our partial triumph over the paperwork with a nice glass of wine, and we’re planning to round off a satisfying day with a tuna salad which we have convinced ourselves is healthy.   Onwards and upwards, as they say.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

Val ruggedly setting forth on the Golf Links road from Portmarnock village centre to the beach	Busy bee getting its lunch from a cheerful scabious near the top of Paddy’s Hill
Arum maculatum (Lords and Ladies) coming into fruit alongside the path in the castle demesne.   The berries are poisonous	Another red fruit – this time a wild rose on Robswall Hill – this one not poisonous
Sheltering from the weather, overlooking the Howth peninsula, in the bathing shelter on Portmarnock beach	Anthemis tinctoria (Golden Marguerite) enveloping a hardy Trachycarpus fortunei (Chinese windmill palm) just above Portmarnock beach
A bit of sun, at last, catching the information board on the coast path back to malahide

Interactive map

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

Download file: Extended hill and coast with Val compressed corrected.gpx

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