Ireland day 1349. Sunday 08 June 2025- Portmarnock Chat

Today’s summary	Walked down to Portmarnock to join Club friends for a stroll along the beach. Lots of chat then sandwich lunch by the swimming pavilion. Walked back to Malahide along the coast. Video call to UK friends in the evening, followed by Val’s home made roast chicken dinner and an episode of “Mad Men”
Today’s weather	Overcast with a couple of very light showers but otherwise mostly dry. Moderate westerly wind. Appx 15c

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): 12

Commentary

In a nutshell, today was pretty low key. There was a Club walk, but it didn’t start until 12:30 and the meeting point was only down the road at Portmarnock. So that left plenty of time for a leisurely start to the day.

I decided to walk over the hill to meet the rest of the walkers at O’Dwyer’s pub, so left at 11:15 to allow plenty of time to get there. Val wanted a day in the flat to sort things out, so she stayed behind. Once I arrived outside the pub, I joined the other ten club members and we set off in the general direction of the coast, via the golf club, shortly after.

There was no rush today as there are so many hours of daylight at this time of year. And the weather, although cool and overcast, was mostly dry. There were a couple of members in the group today that I hadn’t seen for a long time. So my main memory of the walk up the beach was of the chat – I can’t really remember all that much of what we actually saw.

We stopped for lunch once we reached the bathing shelter and once again lingered over our sandwiches so we could continue the chat (there’s a bit of a theme here!).

Afterwards, the rest if the group walked back down the road to O’Dwyer’s, with the intention of having a look at the ruins of St Marnock’s church along the way. I, on the other hand, said my goodbyes and turned the other way, up the coast back to Malahide.

Back at the flat, Val had been busy cleaning and tidying (yes I do feel guilty) and making a delicious roast chicken dinner which we enjoyed later. Before eating, though, we had a video call with some friends in Chester, UK, which was a great opportunity for more chat – albeit via an electronic medium rather than face to face.

Finally, after I’d done the washing up (the least I could do!) we settled back and watched another episode of “Mad Men”. There aren’t that many episodes left to go now, so we shall soon be on the lookout for some new evening viewing!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Verdant fairy circle up on Paddy’s Hill playing fields	O’Dwyer’s pub in Malahide – the rendezvous point for our walk

Setting out coastwards	Now-familiar view from the golf club boardwalk

Teetering at the top of the steps down to Low Rock swimming area. Nobody in the sea from here today – mainly because the tide was so low the shoreline was barely even visible on the distant horizon	Cormorants (or are the shags?) doing a spot of wing-drying on the low tide rocks

Fascinating forest of echiums, apparently taking over someone’s front garden on Carrickhill Road