Ireland day 1277. Friday 28 March 2025- Ardgillan Flowers

Today’s summary	Spent the morning finishing off our tax and sending it off to the accountant. Did some shopping and Spanish then after a snack lunch drove up to Ardgillan for a walk and to admire the wild flowers. Val made a delicious lentil curry for dinner then later we watched “Mad Men” with a couple of beers
Today’s weather	Bright and breezy but with occasional localised showers and feeling cool. Strong westerly wind. Appx 9c

Today’s overview location (The green 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): Ardgillan spring flowers

Commentary

We both woke early this morning, for some reason, so by 7:30 we had had our cups of tea, got up and were bouncing around ready for the day. I decided to make the most of the early morning enthusiasm to try and finish off our tax. After a couple more hours of work, it was all done and ready to be sent off to the accountant. Now we just have to see what he and the Irish Revenue Commissioners make of it all. Then, of course, we have to repeat the whole thing in a couple of months’ time for the benefit of the UK’s HM Revenue and Customs. A hassle, and I hate it, but in reality it’s just a small price to pay for the privilege of living here.

Eventually, once it was done, we treated ourselves to coffees and a slice of excellent home-made (by Val) lemon drizzle cake. Then there was some Spanish deberes and shopping to done while Val got on with some cooking. Finally, though, all our chores were finished and we sat back for a few moments to decide what to do next. In the end, we settled on a short drive up the coast to the Ardgillan house and demesne, for a walk and a general look around.

When we got there, the sun was shining but heavy clouds were hanging around and it looked like it might pour down at any moment. So we beat a rapid path to the tea shop in the house to take refuge in case the heavens opened. In the end, there was only a light shower as we were enjoying our teas, and by the time we’d finished, the sun was shining brightly again.

We continued our walk down through the demesne, heading north with magnificent views of the Cooleys up ahead. We made it to the Lady’s Stairs and crossed over the road and railway line to the secluded beach at the bottom. The tide was super-low when we got there, so we had a couple of hundred meters to walk out across the rocky beach actually to reach the sea. We paused for a few moments to enjoy the gentle soothing rhythm of the lapping waves, then made our way back up the stairs, through the demesne and into the car park.

It was a brilliant afternoon out, and the numerous colourful spring flowers decorating the woodland undergrowth were looking their very best. Some of them are pictured below. A real joy to see.

Once back in Malahide, we polished off a tasty and healthy lentil curry that Val had pulled together, and rounded off the evening, as we so often do, with a couple of beers and an episode of “Mad Men”. This lifestyle could become quite habit-forming!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Blue anemone in the woodland near the top of the demesne	beautiful fritillaries – I have only ever once before seen them growing in the wild, and never in Ireland

Interesting two-tone grape hyacinth breaking its way through the meadow grass	Wood anemones carpeted the forest undergrowth and looked particularly stunning when they caught the sunshine

There were a couple of clumps of this pretty Chinodoxa growing around the trees down near the house	Carefully manicured primula beds near the entrance to the house

Curious artwork in the basement of Ardgillan house. Looks like Gromit after a heavy night out