Ireland day 1168. Monday 09 December 2024- Malahide Sutton

Today’s summary	We had a completely free day so decided to walk down the coast to Sutton and then take the train to Howth for a late lunch at Beshoff’s. A very enjoyable walk and lunch, then a quick journey back to Malahide via the DART and 102 bus. Spent the evening watching “Fat Friends” and “Black Doves” on Netflix
Today’s weather	Lightly overcast and dry but with occasional clear periods. Moderate north easterly wind. Appx 8c

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): Malahide Sutton and Howth

Commentary

Today was one of those blissful days when neither of us had anything at all in our diaries. I love days like this. In a busy life, you really appreciate these islands of calm. Well I do, at any rate.

So, as has often become our habit these days, we had a cup of tea in bed and listened to an interesting podcast (it was an interview with Angela Merkel). While she was chatting, we mulled over possibilities for the day and decided that a blast in the fresh air would be a good idea. Especially for Val as she has been stuck inside for the last few days while she recovered from her tooth and her cold.

We eventually settled on the idea of walking down the coast to Sutton, then taking the train on to Howth, where we planned to have lunch in Beshoff’s fish restaurant. This seemed especially acceptable as we never actually made it out for the dinner we had promised ourselves last night, so this was a good Plan B.

We didn’t rush to set off as it’s an easy walk and impossible to get lost. So we weren’t underway until well after noon. It turned out to be a very enjoyable walk, with bright bracing weather and – fortunately for us – a tailwind. The air must have been clearer than I thought – it seemed a bit overcast and hazy when I looked out from the flat, but the Mournes were definitely visible from the top of Paddy’s Hill. That’s always my yardstick for crystal clean air.

The walk was straightforward and enjoyable and, as we wanted to make the best of the afternoon outside, we walked fairly slowly. It’s more or less exactly 10km to Sutton, and it took us more or less exactly 2 hours, so at 12min/km, it was definitely “relaxed”.

After a brief wait, a train arrived at Sutton station and whisked us the one stop onwards to Howth, allowing us to reach Beshoff’s just before it closed at 3:30pm. A great fish lunch washed down with Guinness was a suitable reward for our afternoon’s excursions, we thought. Then, afterwards, we caught a DART and 102 bus back to Malahide. The timings worked perfectly so we were in the flat only about half an hour after leaving the restaurant.

The last few evenings, we have been watching “Fat Friends” and “Black Doves” on Netflix and thoroughly enjoying them both. Tonight, a re-run beckons, which I think will be the perfect way to wind down from an already pretty wound-down day. May there be many more like it.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Up in the demesne – a couple of trees felled by Darragh. Curious that they both appear to have snapped off halfway up their trunks, and also that they appeared to be healthy and not rotten. Must just have been clobbered by an off-guard blast of wind.	Fabulous view of a Class 201 loco hauling the northbound Dublin to Belfast “Enterprise” service. This photo taken from the OBB 26 bridge on the Back Road

A hopeful sign of spring! Hazel catkins have appeared. The plant is monoecious, meaning it has both male and female parts on the same plant but they are in separate flowers. The catkin is the male flower	The tiny red dot on the end of the bud is the female hazel flower

Hardy Highland cattle enjoying the chilly breeze by the Baldoyle greenway	At Sutton station, awaiting our train to Howth

Looking forward to lunch in Beshoff’s. The kitchen closes at 3:30 on Mondays and we arrived with just ten minutes to spare