Ireland day 1194. Saturday 04 January 2025- Stunning Views

Today’s summary	Drove round the M50 to Fernhill car park to join Walking Club friends for a short-ish hike round the Dublin Mountains from Stepaside. Very cold and frosty, with icy paths making walking quite hazardous. Despite grey skies, the views were spectacular – Tonduff, Tyrone, Mournes, Isle of Man and Anglesey on the distant horizon. Finished early in view of bad weather warning for later. Val at Wonderlights (her last night) and got back after 10pm.
Today’s weather	Cold calm and bright until late afternoon when the wind got up and it started to rain. Light easterly wind. Appx 1c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The black 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): Stunning Views Dublin Mountains DWC

Commentary

I don’t know what it is about weather forecasts, but they seem to have become more and more hysterical recently. Our last two Saturday “long” Club walks have been cancelled because of dire weather warnings and for a while, it seemed as if the same fate might befall today’s outing. An “Amber” warning for today was issued by Met Eireann last night, on the basis of expected low temperatures and possible snow later. In other words a pretty normal January day, really.

Anyway, we examined the weather forecast carefully and realised that the bad weather wasn’t likely to start until later in the evening, so we went ahead anyway. Although sadly it was only me today, as Val was putting in another shift at Wonderlights this evening – her last for the season.

The group rendezvoused at the Fernhill car park in Stepaside, and by 10am we were away walking, heading up into the hills on the Dublin Mountains Way. We cut the route a bit short, in a nod to the impending Polar Vortex (yes really – that’s what cold weather is called these days) and headed straight up to the top of Two Rock mountain.

The path was very icy and demanded care, but the most spectacular feature of the whole excursion was the view. Although the sky was grey, it was exceptionally clear. So we were treated to views spanning from Tonduff in the West, to the Tyrone hills in the North West, Mournes in the North, the Isle of Man to the North East, and Anglesey / Ynys Môn in the East. Absolutely stunning.

Because we had trimmed the route, we were back at the cars by 3pm, just as it started to rain. I was quite surprised that it was raining – the car thermometer only showed 2c and usually at this temperature, it snows.

Anyway, it was a quick drive back to Malahide and I was back in the flat not long after Val left for work. So I got myself a light dinner, did some laundry, and watched another travel video until Val had finished work.

By the way, last night I watched vlogs on Namibia and Botswana. I wasn’t overly impressed, I have to say. They look like fascinating destinations if you’re an animal-lover, but as that’s not really my thing, they seem to have less to offer. They will probably have to be demoted down my “must visit” list. Ah well, there’s plenty to take their place!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Tonduff hills; (to the West of Two Rock)	Slieve Beagh, Co. Tyrone (North West)

Slieve Gullion, The Cooleys and The Mournes (North)	Isle of man (North East)

Anglesey / Ynys Môn (East, appx 150km / 90 mi away)	Slightly enlarged view of the Mournes

All looking pretty happy with our accomplishments!