Ireland day 1191. Wednesday 01 January 2025- New Year Coast Walk

Today’s summary	Val and I welcomed in the New Year with a gentle walk down the coast to Sutton and then bus back. Stopped to chat with a Walking Club friend who we bumped into on the way. Did some work on this website then sausage rolls left over from Christmas for dinner, and we watched “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” afterwards
Today’s weather	Sunny and dry most of the day. Light north westerly wind. Appx 7c

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): New Year Coast 2025

Commentary

Welcome to 2025! I wonder how long it will take me to remember that we aren’t still in 2024? About ten months, probably.

Anyway, after having stayed up to see in the New Year with a “wee dram” last night, we allowed ourselves the luxury of a bit of a lie in and one more cup of tea than usual before getting up this morning. But eventually we dragged ourselves into the day, and discovered that it was actually quite a nice day to be dragged into. Lots of bright sun, no rain, and even the wind had dropped. Quite a contrast to yesterday.

So, as we had yet another day that was blissfully free of commitments, we decided to make the most of it and go for a relaxing stroll down the coast. Today there were no records to be beaten, no paces or distances to be pushed, just a nice easy walk. It turned out that everyone in Malahide seemed to have had the same idea, as the coast path was thronged with New Year walkers when we ventured out. The sun seemed to have brought some of the early spring flowers into bloom. We even spotted our first daffodil in the verge near Malahide Beach. And it’s only the first of January!

Perhaps not too surprisingly given the date, the thronging extended to the sea. When we got to the beach at Portmarnock, we discovered that the sea was teeming with brave swimmers, embarking on their New Year Resolutions in style. We got a cup of coffee from the Spar shop and watched the comings and goings for a while. But, despite our bold endeavours in Mayo a week ago, we didn’t feel tempted to go in. Although Val did allow herself a paddle, but even this was more than I was prepared to do.

As the weather was still nice, we decided to press on as far as Sutton, so we extended our walk a bit further down the coast. Along the way, we met a friend from the Walking Club, out for a spin on her bike. We stopped for a chat, which was nice, and shared our Christmas stories.

Once at Sutton, the 102 pulled up just as we got to the station, so we were able to jump straight onboard and were sped back to Malahide before our feet had barely touched the ground.

The rest of the evening was spent doing a bit of work on this website, attending to some Tax matters (no, tax never goes away) and making dinner. We’re having left-over sausage rolls from Christmas tonight, which we are going to enjoy whilst catching up on another classic of the Silver Screen. This time it’s Clint again – “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” beckons!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


A colony of Ringed Plovers, according to the ornithologist in our party, roosting just offshore near Malahide Beach	Classic view south, from near the plovers. Ireland’s Eye on the horizon – completely invisible yesterday

Here we are marching along the Baldoyle Greenway, sun on our faces and wind on our backs. Just a good job we weren’t going the other way	New café next to Baldoyle church. Despite the pronouncement on the sign that it was open, it was shut, so we will have to pay a return visit another day

Contemporary greetings on Portmarnock Beach!	The 102 pulled in outside Sutton Station just as we arrived – no hanging about waiting to be whisked back to Malahide at the end of our walk. Which was a good thing, as it was getting quite cool

Val was much braver than me!!