Ireland day 1030. Wednesday 24 July 2024- Ardgillan Afternoon

Today’s summary	Woke up late then spent the morning unpacking and doing the washing. In the afternoon we drove up to Ardgillan house and had a wander through the rose gardens. Spotted a hare lolloping through the demesne on the way back to the car. Video calls to a friend in Scotland and family in Oxfordshire in the evening.
Today’s weather	Light rain in the morning then overcast but dry for the rest of the day. Moderate southerly wind. 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): Ardgillan Afternoon Walk

Commentary

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

Much to my surprise, I didn’t wake up until after 10 o’clock this morning. The weekend away and the trauma of the car non-starting at the ferry must have been more tiring than I thought. Val was clearly made of stronger stuff though, and woke up hours before me but much to her credit, managed to let me sleep on.

Once we had finally surfaced and enjoyed our cups of tea in bed, we got up and unpacked our bags from our trip. We had arrived back too late last night to contemplate anything other than collapsing straight into bed, so this particular task had been left until the morning. Anyway, it didn’t take long, and the washing was quickly sorted and in the machine, and so we were ready to make plans for the rest of the day.

We had planned to head into Dublin for a stroll around Phoenix Park, but ran out of enthusiasm for tackling the public transport system today. So we decided to hop in the Trusty Yaris and drive the short way up the M1 to Ardgillan house instead. Anyway, we thought, it probably wouldn’t hurt to get the battery properly charged up again.

We had taken a packed lunch (thanks Val – it was delicious!) and made our way down to the rose garden, where we found a sheltered bench out of the wind to sit back and enjoy our salmon salad. Then we admired the roses, as “retired” people are supposed to do, and had a good look round the beautiful and floribundant conservatory.

I was in charge of making the coffee to take with us – which I had done but forgot to actually bring. So we just had to retire to the café for post-prandial refreshment once we had finished looking round the garden.

We finished off our visit with a walk around the perimeter of Ardgillan demesne – an enjoyable walk with very few people around. And extra interest was added to our circumnavigation when a hoppy leporine visitor bounced across our path on the way back to the car.

A quick spin down the motorway got us back to Malahide in time to join a video call with a friend in Scotland, and then another call with family in Oxfordshire, both of which were very enjoyable. A great way to finish the day – just need a couple of episodes of “The Wire” now to round it off perfectly.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Ardgillan House – the scaffolding related to the roof repair seems to have disappeared so hopefully everything is fixed now	An unusually blue rose (this one is “Rhapsody in Blue”). It always fascinates me – and yet still nobody has perfected a truly blue rose

Some more roses	And a Bougainvillaea – everyone knows how much I like these plants!

As as was wandering through the basement of Ardgillan house in search of the loos, I discovered an art gallery. As you do.	End of a very relaxing afternoon

A little Mediterranean bubble in the middle of Fingal