Ireland day 0762. Monday 30 October 2023- Coastal Interest *

Ireland day 0762. Monday 30 October 2023- Coastal Interest

Today’s summary	Went up to the station to take a look at the rail works and ended up walking right down the coast to Howth. On the spur of the moment, decided to visit the National Transport Museum at Howth castle and have refreshments in the Deer Park golf club café. Val still in London
Today’s weather	Mostly dry but with a longer spell of heavier rain later in the afternoon. Light easterly wind. Appx 11c

Today’s overview location (The grey mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The orange 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): Interesting coast walk to Howth

Commentary

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

It was quite an interesting night, last night.

Iarnród Éireann are once again doing railway works at Malahide station – though at least this time the work they are doing is pretty dramatic. A section of track about 1km long heading south from Malahide had, by yesterday evening, been completely removed and was in the process of being re-laid with brand new track including a new set of points. The work continued all night and I wasn’t looking forward to another sleepless night courtesy of the railway company. So I decided to try a new tack and found an endless white noise generator on YouTube which I played back through the computer speakers. I set the volume just high enough to drown out the works outside and – somewhat to my surprise – I fell straight asleep and slept through the engineering activity without even needing earplugs. A useful result.

Val’s still in London so missed the night’s drama. But once I awoke, I decided my first objective this morning should be to go up to the railway bridge and have a look at what progress had been made overnight. As I got up there, the massive yellow tamping machine (pictured in the banner image at the top) was hard at work. Its job is to shake down the ballast to make sure the new rails are properly bedded in. Apparently it’s the last job before the track is reopened.

Once I’d had a look at the railway, I had intended to do some shopping before returning to base. But as the weather was dry – which is a bit of a rarity at the moment – I decided to head off down the coast and see how far I got. In the end, I made it pretty much all the way to Howth, but because the tide was in I had to make a few detours away from the coast, as my normal shoreline path was submerged. But this had several unexpected advantages!

First off, just by the dunes on Malahide beach, I could see the high tide and easterly wind eating away at the coast – actively exposing the old concrete promenade, previously hidden by decades of drifting sand. Then a bit further on, I saw I sign leading down a narrow path I’d never noticed before, to Eaglais Naomh Mearnóg (St Marnock’s Church). Nowadays the 13th century church is more or less in ruins and is surrounded by a golf course, but it’s a pretty little spot, an oasis of quiet, and I was glad I had found it.

I couldn’t approach Howth itself from the beach because of the tide, so had to road-walk from Sutton via the R105. As I was walking past the entrance to Howth Castle, I saw a slightly unexpected sign alerting passers-by that the National Transport Museum at Howth Castle was actually open today (it only opens weekend and bank holiday afternoons and today is a bank holiday in Ireland). So I had to go in and have a look, of course.

The museum was actually quite interesting despite just focusing on buses , trucks and trams with no railwayana. It’s not a lavish affair, and all the exhibits are crammed into a slightly uninviting looking warehouse and are identified with a few typed up notes which looked as it they had been penned in haste. Nevertheless I enjoyed my visit – especially as I was the only one who had actually managed to find it today, so I had the whole place to myself.

After a quick look round, I continued my climb in the by-now-pouring rain up to the café in the Deer Park golf club. Being a non-golfer I am always a bit hesitant about going into these clubhouses, especially when soaking wet, but the staff were super friendly and I had a very welcome cup of coffee and hot panini.

After my late lunch, I headed back down the hill (thankfully it had stopped raining by now) and, because the Howth DART is also closed (for some reason) by the engineering works at Malahide, I had to return via the H3 and H2 buses to Malahide. Actually it worked out well, and didn’t take much longer than if I had gone by train.

Now I’m back in the flat but there’s no rest for the wicked as, once I have made my tea, I have some more Spanish homework to do. ¡No me gustan los deberes!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Impressive cloudscapes over Malahide beach and Lambay Island	Malahide is slowly getting smaller and smaller as the sea eats away at the coast

The ruins of Eaglais Naomh Mearnóg (St Marnock’s Church) built in the 12th or 13th century. Nowadays it is pretty much surrounded by the golf club. Naomh Mearnóg is the saint after whom Portmarnock is named	Keeping a stern eye on the herd! Highland cow by the Baldoyle greenway

With the big red (fire) engine!	Surveying a soggy scene from the lofty heights of the Deer Park golf club

What a monster! A Scammell Junior Constructor, registered in 1965. I was always a bit of a fan of Scammell. Their sheer bulk and power never failed to impress me