Ireland day 0714. Tuesday 12 September 2023- Trinity Botanic *

Ireland day 0714. Tuesday 12 September 2023- Trinity Botanic

Today’s summary	Took the DART and Luas into Dublin to visit the Trinity College Botanic Gardens in Dartry, south Dublin. Cup of tea in Dubray books on way back
Today’s weather	Bright and dry but a bit cooler than recently. Plenty of sun. Moderate northerly wind. Appx 16C

Today’s overview location (The grey mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange and grey 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): Trinity Botanics

Commentary

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

Val had a day off work today and had been researching new places to explore in Dublin. Purely by chance, she came across the Trinity Collage Botanic Gardens – an annex of the famous college, located in Dartry, south Dublin. As we are both interested in plants, and as it seemed easy to get to by DART and Luas, we thought we would give it a try.

It turned out to be an excellent choice. The beautiful garden really is a “hidden gem” as it’s well off the tourist trail. In fact it isn’t really open to the public at all, so there are no facilities. But the lone gardener on duty today told us the College didn’t mind people wandering in and having a look (and he even allowed us to use his loo!). As a result, it was beautifully quiet and peaceful. No other visitors, no children, no dogs, no picnics (apart from us). And the garden is in the middle of Dartry, which seems like a really smart suburb of Dublin. Massive brick houses on wide tree-lined boulevards, which look both welcoming and expensive.

We had a good look around the gardens and the greenhouses. There was a wide variety of plants – both native and exotic – on display, and all seemed to be thriving despite the obvious evidence that the place was run on a bit of a shoestring. But there’s a lab and a teaching facility, so it’s clearly a working garden, being actively used presumably by the Trinity College botany department. It seems to specialise in carnivorous plants like Nepenthes, Sarracenia and Dionaea (Venus Fly-Trap; pictured in the banner image above). We lingered in the garden for a couple of hours, found a sunny bench for our lunch, and generally relaxed in the peace and quiet. Blissful.

Once we had exhausted the botanical revelations, we headed back to the Green Line Luas stop but rather than going straight back to Malahide, we got off at St Stephen’s Green and walked down to Dubray Books. It’s a nice bookshop with a good café on the second floor, and we felt in need of some refreshment after our exertions(!) in the botanic gardens.

We returned to Malahide on the H2 bus and really enjoyed a slow tour of Dublin’s northern suburbs. All in all it had been a truly fulfilling and unexpectedly interesting day out. Thanks to Val for suggesting it!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


It’s a real hidden gem	Overview of the main greenhouse

*Fragrant and delicate Hymenocallis festalis* (sometimes known as Peruvian Daffodil or Beach Spider Lily) seems to be thriving in the greenhouse environment**	Like the lily, I think my metabolism was adapted to live in a greenhouse (especially in the winter)

*Magnificent Ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) growing in the arboretum. It’s by far the biggest I’ve ever seen and I do hope it doesn’t succumb to dieback disease*	In Dubray Books in Grafton Street. There’s a nice café upstairs where you are encouraged to linger over a book. Very civilised

*Beautiful coral hibiscus (Hibiscus schizopetalus) in full bloom in the temperate house. I’d love to live somewhere where plants like this grow outdoors and flower all year round*