Ireland day 1002. Wednesday 26 June 2024- Southern Cross

Today’s summary	Val returned to the UK for a couple of days and I went down to Portmarnock to join a historical walk commemorating the 94th anniversary of the transatlantic flight of the “Southern Cross” from Portmarnock beach to Harbour Grace in Newfoundland. Walked back afterwards via the coast.
Today’s weather	Sunny and warm most of the day, threat of drizzle in the evening. Almost no wind. Appx 19c

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): Southern Cross history walking tour

Commentary

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

One of Portmarnock’s most illustrious visitors wasn’t actually a person- rather it was an aeroplane.

Back in June 1930, the “Southern Cross”, a three-engined Fokker piloted by Australian Charles Kingsford-Smith, landed on the Velvet Strand on a pioneering round-the-world flight. It had alighted at this illustrious spot because at the time it was the only flat, straight strip of land in the area that would be long enough to allow the fully fuelled plane to take off again.

The flight eventually took to the air on 24 June and successfully touched down in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, some 30 hours later. Southern Cross duly completed her circumnavigation at Oakland, California, a few days later.

Today, a local historian, Garry Ahern, was leading a guided walk round some of the historical sights of Portmarnock, finishing up at the “Eccentric Orbit” sculpture at the north end of the beach, which celebrates the momentous flight. I decided to join the walk today, although sadly Val couldn’t as she had to return to London. So I went along on my own.

It turned out to be an excellent excursion – I learned a lot and met some interesting people – including a retired MEP and Chair of Dublin Council. About a hundred fellow walkers turned up and even the weather co-operated with blue skies and warm sunshine. We finished off with tea and cakes at the Parish Centre, which were excellent.

Once our explorations and refreshments were finished, I walked back to Malahide via the coast. I picked up some lunch from the promenade Spar shop and enjoyed it on the beach, quite close to the sculpture, actually.

Now I’ve got an evening on my own, I’m going to read a bit more of my book. It’s a text book on the earth’s climate over the last four and a half billion years and it’s absolutely fascinating. I must get on now, to see if I can work out what’s likely to happen in the next billion other two. A truly mind-expanding day!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


St Anne’s Church Portmarnock – the starting point for today’s tour	Our guide kicking things off

Investigating the southern lodge at the entrance to the former Jameson House	Garry in full swing at St Marnock’s church

The public loos by Malahide beach have been demolished and are being replaced by new ones. Very nice – though there didn’t seem to be anything much wrong with the old ones	Tonight’s reading material

Details of our excursion today