Ireland day 0817. Sunday 24 December 2023- Louisburgh Day 2 *

Ireland day 0817. Sunday 24 December 2023- Louisburgh Day 2

Today’s summary	A leisurely cup of tea in bed then we got up and started the lunch cooking. We are having Christmas lunch today so we can go out tomorrow. Walked down to the beach at Kilsallagh Bay while everything was cooking. Then had our late pre-Christmas Christmas lunch and fell asleep for most of the afternoon. A couple of episodes of the Sopranos in the evening
Today’s weather	Dull and wet but very mild all day. Strong westerly wind. Appx 12c

Today’s overview location (The green 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): KIlsallagh beach

Commentary

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

We’ve decided to spend Christmas this year a bit differently – in a small cottage in county Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland. We are in a self catering cottage between the village of Lecanvey and the town of Louisburgh. It’s small and cosy and suits us perfectly. The other unusual feature of this Christmas is that we are doing things the wrong way round – i.e. Christmas dinner today, and then Christmas eve dinner tomorrow. The reason being that we are hoping to get out for a walk on Christmas day, mainly because the weather forecast looks a bit better for tomorrow than today.

So we’ve had a very luxurious Christmas-before-Christmas today. We started off with a lovely cup of tea in bed – which was particularly joyous as there was no work to go to and no noisy trains revving and beeping outside our bedroom window. Just fresh air billowing in from the moorland, perfumed with a bouquet of peat-smoke. Like another world.

Once we dragged ourselves into wakefulness, we headed for the fridge and started preparing sprouts and potatoes. We got the turkey out so it could start its journey to the oven, and then once it, with the stuffing and pigs in blankets, were safely at 180c, we decided to take a short walk.

We are only ten minutes from the windy and rainswept beach at Kinsallagh Bay, so we headed down to the sea, examined the impressive glacial till (which also forms the drumlins so spectacularly on show in Clew Bay), and then wandered back in the driving rain. Even though we were out for well under an hour, we were soaked when we got back. So the wet clothes went onto the radiators, spare clothes were changed into, and turkey was served.

It was a fabulous lunch – well worthy of any Christmas day. And with a couple of bottles of wine – including my favourite Chateau Musar to wash it down too. Val did an amazing job to pull it all together in an unfamiliar setting, and to get all the essential ingredients too, especially while she was so busy at work. So a really successful day and now it’s after 8pm already – I don’t know where the day has gone (although I think I might have had a little sleep in the afternoon). So now it’s time to catch up on a couple of episodes of the Sopranos that I downloaded over the dodgy wifi. Onwards to tomorrow!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Heading out for a pre-prandial leg stretch from our cottage at Lecanvey, just outside Louisburgh, before lunch	Still some cheery roses in flower, enjoying the mild pre-Christmas weather

Admiring the glacial till on the southern shore of Clew Bay at Kilsallagh bay	Looking west towards Falduff Strand

Winter mermaid!	Looking toward Croagh Patrick – brooding in the mist this morning

Pre-Christmas lunch. Fabulous