Ireland day 1062. Sunday 25 August 2024- Boyne Again

Today’s summary	Picked up a friend from Donaghmede then drove up to Drogheda for a Club walk along the river Boyne. Had lunch at Oldbridge Battle of the Boyne site then retraced our steps back. Managed to avoid most of the rain but it felt cold. For dinner we finished off the soup and jacket potatoes I made yesterday.
Today’s weather	Overcast with heavy showers and drizzle most of the day. Strong to gale force south westerly wind. Appx 17c though feeling much cooler

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue 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): Boyne Valley Ramparts and Oldbridge DWC

Commentary

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

So far as I am concerned, the official shorts-wearing season doesn’t finish until at least October. So despite some slight misgivings about the wind and rain lashing down outside when we woke up this morning, shorts were donned, packed lunches made, and we set off reasonably early and reasonably bright to join a Club walk from Drogheda today.

Our journey up the M1 was swift, even though we diverted via Donaghmede to pick up a friend en route which added a couple of minutes. But I knew as soon as I got out of the car in Drogheda, that the shorts had been a mistake. It was drizzling, very windy, and felt extremely cold. Anyway we had arrived early so there was time to get a coffee in the West Gate café and the caffeine fix went some way to warding off the chill.

The rest of the group was soon assembled in St Dominic’s Park and we set off upstream on the Boyne Ramparts and under the Mary MacAleese bridge. It’s an easy, flat, walk and the time passed quickly with lots of news and chat to be caught up on from the other walkers.

We duly arrived at Oldbridge visitor centre, where we planned to stop to have our sandwich lunches. It would have been nicer to have eaten in the courtyard of the café, but there were strict notices everywhere about not eating your own food. Since we were reprimanded for doing just that the last time we were there, we decided that rather that risk getting a criminal record, we would go elsewhere. As it happened there were some good picnic benches nearby and as even more luck would have it, the branches of the overhanging tree kept us moderately dry when the heavens opened right in the middle of our meal.

After lunch, we dropped in to the visitor centre and reminded ourselves of the complex history of European animosities which led to the Battle of the Boyne on this site in 1690 (see blog of 1 October 2021 for the details).

After about an hour, we reconvened and retraced our steps down the river to Drogheda. We were back by about 4pm although we did have to pause midway to pull on waterproofs as the heavens opened on us once more and doused us in icy rain.

We said our goodbyes and then made a swift journey back to Malahide. Of course, once we got back the clouds cleared and the sun came out. But that’s life I suppose and the weather certainly in no way dampened our enjoyment of a really excellent day out. Now all that remains is to retrieve yesterday’s left over soup, jacket potatoes and rhubarb from the fridge, zap them in the microwave, and settle down to dine with perhaps some warm and sunny viewing to accompany us on the TV.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Drogheda this morning. In the ruins of the Abbey of St Mary D’Urso, founded in 1206 and Drogheda’s oldest Monastic site	On George’s St. Bridge of Peace, crossing the Boyne (tide-out) in Drogheda

Walking upstream on the Ramparts with the Mary MacAleese bridge in the background	Oldbridge House and the Battle of the Boyne visitor centre

Display describing the complex European political backdrop to the Battle of the Boyne. It’s as complex and incestuous as “Game of Thrones” and even more bloodthirsty	No wonder shorts on legs felt cold today!

Welcoming us to the Oldbridge battle site