Ireland day 1347. Friday 06 June 2025- Coast Recce

Today’s summary	Val still in London so I took the opportunity to recce, with a friend, the Balbriggan to Laytown walk that Val and I did in April and which I’m leading for the Club later in the month. It went well and we got to Laytown just before it started to pour down. A bit tricky in places but should be ok. Train back and in the flat before 6pm. A call to Val and then more travel videos in the evening.
Today’s weather	Bright and breezy with occasional heavy showers. Light westerly wind. Feeling cool for the time of year at Appx 15c

Today’s overview location (The red 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): Balbriggan to Laytown recce

Commentary

Back in April, Val and I explored a new coastal walk north between the railway stations at Balbriggan and Laytown. We really enjoyed it, as it was something new and a bit off the beaten track. So I have volunteered to lead it as a Club walk at the end of this month.

In advance of the walk, I thought it would be a good idea to recce it again and, as Val is still away in London, I decided to do it today.

So after a morning pottering around and about the flat, I met up with a friend, who had agreed to do the walk with me, at Malahide station for the short train journey up the coast to Balbriggan. We caught a train at 12:27 and were in Balbriggan in about 20 minutes.

From the station, we followed more or less exactly the same route along the coast as Val and I had taken last time. Today, unlike then, the tide was out so in places the going was a bit easier. We didn’t have to fight our way through the clifftop vegetation, as we could walk on the now-exposed beach to bypass the tricky sections. Though I think on 29 June the tide will be pretty high, unfortunately.

It really is a walk of two halves – each of about 6km. The first half, to the Delvin river crossing at Gormanston, is the harder, and requires some careful footwork over the boulders on the shore. But the second half from the Delvin to Laytown, is all along the beach and is flat and easy.

So we pushed on as far as the river then once we had crossed, allowed ourselves a brief break to enjoy the refreshments we had brought with us. It’s a wonderful stretch of coast – relatively accessible and with beautiful shelly beaches – but despite the accessibility, with hardly anybody about.

After our snacks we pressed on and made good time up the coast to Laytown. We paused to have a quick look at the military facility at Mosney which was interesting but had an air of dereliction about it. Our northerly progress was given some extra impetus by the looming black clouds to the west, which appeared to be heading determinedly in our direction.

Anyway, we made it to the relative shelter of the somewhat Spartan platform at Laytown station just as the heavens opened and it started to pour. Excellent timing. We had about 20 minutes to wait for a train back to Malahide, but the time passed quickly with an interesting array of trains moving up and down on the busy line to Belfast.

We were back in Malahide before 6pm and I returned directly to the flat. My first priority was to sort out dinner, as I was quite hungry. In the end, I settled on the path of least resistance and reheated a pop-pop spaghetti bolognaise that I found in the freezer.

Last night I enjoyed watching a hiking video from Slovenia so, now that I’ve finished dining, I’m going to fire up the TV and see what other travelogues I can unearth on YouTube. A fitting way to end a day which, after all, was spent in a similar vein – exploring the hidden corners of Ireland’s east coast.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Heading to the coast from Balbriggan station, under the impressive 1844 railway viaduct. There’s quite a lot of building work going on at its base – I’m not quite sure what is happening but a lot of money is being spent on the area the moment, in an effort to make Balbriggan an attractive place to settle	Looking north from the coast near Balbriggan. On the horizon, the Cooleys are the left hand hump of hills, the Mournes are at the right hand side

One of many shelly beaches along the way – a lot of razor clams, possibly dredged up by the trawlers plying the coast. If so, it’s a bit sad to see this washed-up evidence of subsea environmental damage	Making a brief inland diversion under the Knocknagin viaduct to cross the Delvin river (which marks the border between Co. Dublin and Co. Meath) at Gormanston

heavy clouds appeared to the west and headed swiftly in our direction. We made it to the station just as the heavens opened	A rail special zoomed northwards through Laytown station as we waited. It was run by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland and was hauling a rake of Pullman carriages – presumably imported from the UK and re-gauged

A military range and camp is sited on the coast at Mosney. It all looks semi-derelict to me (although there are signs about red flags flying when live firing is in progress, so presumably it does get used from time to time)