Ireland day 1222. Saturday 01 February 2025- Trooperstown Holly

Today’s summary	Drove down to Trooperstown, to join a Club walk in the Annamoe area. Normally this walk is done before Christmas to search for holly but for various reasons last year’s walk had to be postponed to today. An enjoyable walk in good weather, and we found holly (with berries) and visited the Gossan stones. In the evening had a pop pop meal, watched TV and spoke to Val who is coming to the end of her Swiss holiday.
Today’s weather	Mild overcast breezy and dry. Moderate southerly wind. Appx 9c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The red 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): Trooperstown Holly Walk

Commentary

Every year, in the weeks before Christmas, the Club organises a short-ish walk in the Trooperstown area (near Annamoe, Co Wicklow). Holly grows abundantly there and the aim is to collect a few berried sprigs as seasonal decorations. But the last couple of years, the walk has had to be cancelled because of bad weather or illness.

Anyway, two months later, today we actually made it. I drove down after a relatively early start, so we were away walking by 10am. It’s a good walk, up the northern slopes of the Avonmore valley, meeting up briefly with the Wicklow Way, and on to the Gossan stones. We paused to look at the stones (which I wrote about a few years ago) – they have an ancient history and are sited to frame the rising sun, when viewed in the direction of the Devil’s Glen, at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.

From the stones, we headed over to the Adirondack hut at Brusher Gap for lunch. It affords welcome shelter from the elements, although today the decent weather meant that not much shelter was actually needed.

On the walk back down to the valley, we finally encountered holly – decoratively laden with an abundance of red berries and looking very festive. Just two months too late.

We crossed the river at Annamoe then headed back downstream on the southern flanks of the valley. It was a short walk, so we were back at the cars by 2:30. That left plenty of time for a relaxed drive back to Malahide and a nice long evening for a video catch up with Val (she had her last day skiing today) and a pop pop curry (I do know how to live!!)

Now I’m going to seek out a couple of travel videos (I do enjoy Lucas T Jahn’s adventure vlogs on YouTube- they are excellent) and try and get an early night, ready for another adventurous day tomorrow!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Larking around at the Gossan Stones	here we all are!

Smart new signage has appeared along the Wicklow Way (and a new logo!)	A brightly coloured azalea was in early bloom on the roadside heading down to Annamoe. Just as I was taking this photo, the owner drove up in his car and said it always flowered at this time of year and I was welcome to take a cutting if I wanted (I didn’t). He didn’t know what the secret of successful blooming was – or even what kind of plant it was. I told him I thought it was an azalea or rhododendron and se said “oh no – not the bad kind” – which I assumed meant the invasive type colonising the hillsides around here. I assured him that was unlikely to be the case.

The threat of the dangerous antique shop hung over us like a malevolent shadow throughout our whole walk	Heading back to the car park through the woodland on the southern bank of the Avondale river

Found it!