Ireland day 0703. Friday 01 September 2023- Sunny Afternoon *

Ireland day 0703. Friday 01 September 2023- Sunny Afternoon

Today’s summary	Some more life-admin in the morning and then took advantage of a lovely sunny afternoon to walk with Val round our favourite Paddy’s Hill and Coast circuit
Today’s weather	Miserable cold and wet in the morning, then brilliantly sunny in the afternoon. Clouded over again in the evening. Light easterly breeze. Appx 18C

Today’s overview location (The grey 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): Paddys Hill and Coast in the sun

Commentary

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

I’ve been spending time in the last few days dealing with various life-admin matters, and today was no exception. In fact it worked out well, as while I was stuck indoors, it was drizzly and wet outside – looking and feeling exactly how you would expect the beginning of September to look and feel, actually. But by the time I had finished my admin duties and Val had settled herself back into Malahide after her trip away, the clouds were parting and the sun had begun to shine.

It was a quite remarkable transformation, really, as in the space of less than an hour, the weather went from full-Autumn back to bright midsummer – with bright blue sky and warm sun. So without further ado, we gathered our things, made packed lunches, and launched out into the fresh air.

We didn’t do anything spectacularly new today, as it turned out. Just our usual and favourite circular walk through the demesne, up Paddy’s Hill, down to the Velvet Strand, and back along the beach. But because the weather was so good, and because we were acutely aware that the approaching Autumn, Winter and Spring could be long, cold and wet, we dawdled along in the warmth, taking a long time over our sandwiches and pottering about on the shore.

The wild flowers were still looking good, and everywhere was still very green after the wet summer. There even seemed to be more birds about this year than last – massed swallows on the roofs of the Robswall houses, and crowds of starlings roosting on the telephone wires along the coast. The starlings seemed to prefer the wires where they ran above the road – I don’t know why, perhaps the tarmac reflected the sun making it feel warmer there.

It took us a full four hours to complete the short walk, but we enjoyed every minute of it and are having steak and chips tonight to celebrate. A great day all round.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Magnolia Grandiflora in full magnificent bloom in the demesne. I love the flowers’ grapefruit-ey smell	There’s absolutely brilliant children’s playground in the castle demesne. Well done to Fingal Council for building it

Southbound train from Drogheda heading to Connolly just after leaving Malahide. Taken from the Back Road bridge	The September rose! A wild rose, which seems to flower more or less all year, just outside the Jameson Orchard development

Up on the hill, enjoying the sun	Endlessly fascinating wildlife in the rock-pools as we walked back along the shore

Fantastic billowy clouds were brilliantly set against a limpid blue sky as we slowly progressed around our loop