Ireland day 1275. Wednesday 26 March 2025- New Visitors Day 4

Today’s summary	We went round to the Grand Hotel for coffee with our friends then drove them round to the airport in plenty of time for their 1pm flight. In the afternoon, we walked over the hill to Portmarnock and back along the coast. In the evening, I took the DART down to UCD Belfield to have a look at their Isotope Geochemistry labs, courtesy of the Irish Geological Association
Today’s weather	Dry with light cloud and sunny intervals. Light southerly wind. Appx 14c

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): Over the hill with Val

Commentary

A very interesting and varied day today. It kicked off first thing with coffees and croissants at the Grand Hotel, courtesy of our friends, who have been staying their the last three nights. After an hour catching up over refreshments, we drove round to the airport in good time for their 1pm flight.

Once back at Malahide, we had a light snack and made some travel arrangements for the coming days, weeks and months. Eventually all the admin was completed so we decided to make the most of this extended period of fine weather and go out to enjoy our favourite Hill and Coast walk over to Portmarnock. As has become our habit of late, we treated ourselves to cups of tea and a couple of end-of-day pastries that were being sold off cheap. It was pleasant sitting on the beach as, for once, it wasn’t too cold or too windy. to add interest, a horse and two wheel “sulky” trap emerged onto the beach to practice some trotting along the shoreline.

We walked quickly back along the coast road to Malahide and once in the flat again, Val magically rustled up a delicious spicy chicken dinner, complete with perfect spinach (courtesy of Kerrigans) seemingly out of nowhere. Once refuelled, I then set out on the next chapter of the day’s adventures.

When we moved to Ireland, as I have an interest in geological things, I joined the Irish Geological Association. We’ve been on a number of trips organised by the IGA and they have all been excellent. So when the opportunity came up today to visit the new National Centre for Isotope Geochemistry at UCD this evening, I jumped at the chance.

A quick DART to Sydney Parade and a 2km walk took me to the middle of the smart new UCD campus at Belfield. It’s an impressive place – smart, modern and clean.

The tour of the labs was fascinating. There are three main mass spectrometers, which are used for dating geological and archaeological specimens and for analysing trace elements in groundwater. It’s the premier centre for this type of work in Ireland, and is involved in world class collaborations with universities in the UK, Europe and more widely.

The tour finished about 8:30 and a quick walk back to Sydney Parade followed by a short wait for a DART saw me back in Malahide by 10pm.

A thoroughly worthwhile evening out, and a great way to end a busy day.
Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Pretty magnolia on the driveway to the castle demesne. It seemed to have a light fragrance	Nearby Paupers’ Hill (where you can watch the summer concerts for free) up in the Demesne

Lonesome cowslip on Paddy’s Hill	Always time for refreshments!

Inside the uber-modern Science Centre at UCD. Must be a great place to study	The “Neptune” mass-spectrometer

Looking back on Howth, where we were yesterday