Ireland day 1265. Sunday 16 March 2025- City Centre

Today’s summary	Val working again so I took a late morning train to Dublin to join a DWC walk round the central city from St Stephens Green. Very enjoyable and lovely weather. Met up with Val back in Malahide afterwards for a walk round the demesne. Salad, wine and Mad Men in the evening.
Today’s weather	Bright sunny and dry. Light north easterly wind. Appx 10c

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): Dublin City Centre exploration

Commentary

After yesterday’s battering walk from Glenbride, I definitely felt in need of something a bit easier today. Maybe it’s just my age! Anyway, a short city walk in the sparking sunshine sounded like just what the doctor ordered.

So as soon as we were up and about, I got ready to go out on today’s Club walk, while Val headed off to put in another shift at the museum. The Club was meeting up at St Stephen’s Green at 12 noon and I was aiming to get the 1103 DART into town to meet the rest of the group. As it happened, the train was cancelled but I got the following diesel and a no 14 bus, and thanks to the wonders of mobile telephony the group waited a few minutes for me to arrive.

It was an interesting walk and Dublin was looking lovely in the late-winter sunshine. I learned quite a lot en route – who knew, for instance, that an elephant was buried in Iveagh Gardens? Well I for one didn’t. And we also took a look at the “Victims” sculpture in Merrion Square, which depicts a victim of war. It was originally supposed to be part of a much bigger war memorial destined for Washington DC, but it was never completed. It’s pretty grim, to be honest.

After sandwiches in Merrion Square, we walked east to visit St Stephen’s Church on Mount Street Upper. It’s sometimes known as the Pepper Canister, on account of its unusual spire. It was built around 1821. From there we made our way over to the Grand Canal at which point I left the rest of the group and walked back to Connolly for a diesel to Malahide.

Once I got back, I met up with Val as soon as she finished work, and we walked round the demesne together. Then another salad dinner followed (we’re still eating up from last week!) with more left over wine and some “Mad Men” on the TV.

A great day for recharging the batteries.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Fun and games in the Maze, Iveagh Gardens	Lovely hyacinths decorating a corner of St Stephens Green

Oscar looking Wilde in St Stephens Green	Rather graphic and gruesome “The Victims” sculpture, by Andrew O’Connor, lurking in a corner of Merrion Square that I’d never visited before

The “Joker’s Chair” – installed in Merrion gardens by RTE to celebrate the life of Dermot Morgan, who played “Father Ted” in the popular TV series	Interesting curved stonework in the roof of the tunnel under the railway line at Grand Canal Dock

St Stephens Church, aka the Pepper Canister, from the front (a rear view is in the banner image at the top of this page)