Ireland day 1389. Friday 18 July 2025- Canal and Botanics

Today’s summary	Val away in London and I had a free day. Decided to go into Dublin to check out progress on the Royal Canal towpath repairs. Discovered that the latest section – round Croke Park – reopened just this morning. Excellent. Only a short stretch still closed now. Went on to the Botanics to get lunch and have a look at the greenhouses. Came back via Drumcondra and Connolly. Light dinner then travel videos before an early night.
Today’s weather	Humid mild and overcast with occasional showers. Hardly any wind. Appx 18c.

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Royal Canal towpath and Botanics

Commentary

I will admit it. I’m not the world’s greatest chef, and I don’t really like cooking. So when Val is away I tend to take the easy options when it comes to catering. With these culinary constraints in mind, I spent a few moments reflecting in bed this morning, contemplating exactly what today’s easy option might be. Eventually, though, I did come up with a plan which would cunningly combine a bit of exploration with a suitable dining opportunity.

My destination today was the Royal Canal Towpath. This canal runs to the north of Dublin, from the Liffey to the Shannon at Cloondara, Co Longford. The National Famine Way runs along it from Strokestown.

Within only a few months of us arriving in Ireland, the towpath section in Dublin was largely closed – mainly I think because it was collapsing into the canal. I’d heard stories that all or part of it had reopened recently, so I thought I’d go into town and take a look. After all, the canal is very easy to access from Connolly. And it runs close to the Botanics where I could execute part 2 of my plan – to get a ready-cooked lunch in the cafeteria.

It turned out that the stories were mostly true. Almost all of the formerly closed sections had reopened. In fact it turned out from chatting to one of the local residents that the most important missing stretch – the bit which runs practically underneath Croke Park – had just opened this morning. So my timing was perfect. It was all very deluxe and clean today, but I couldn’t help wondering how long it would be before it succumbed to encroaching urban decay and vandalism. Anyway let’s hope that’s a long way off, and I was glad to be able to enjoy it shiny and new today.

There was only a short stretch still closed – between the Russell Street bridge near the Croke Park hotel (AKA Bloody Sunday Bridge) and Binns Bridge. A section of about 400 metres.

I walked a little further upstream then diverted North along Botanic Road and straight into the gardens. I had a quick look round the greenhouses, indulging my fantasy once again about being somewhere warm and sunny. Then it was lunchtime and fortunately the café had a rather nice lamb roast on the menu today. Absolutely delicious and packed with much-needed protein. I probably won’t need to eat for a fortnight now.

After lunch, I had another quick look round some more of the Botanics then started to make my way back to Malahide. To vary things a little, I headed for Drumcondra station, via the parks of the Tolka valley.

Once at the station I only had 3 minutes to wait for a train to Connolly (somewhat curiously the train’s ultimate destination was Dun Laoghaire – I didn’t know the Maynooth line trains ran as far as that). A quick transfer between Platforms 5 to 7, then a nine minute wait, and I was speeding away on a Drogheda train – first stop Malahide.

I was back in the flat by about 4:30pm, gasping for a cup of tea but very satisfied with an excellent day out. Two key objectives achieved – towpath checked out and low effort lunch secured. What could better?

I passed the evening with a quick video call to Val, then a snacky-type dinner and a few moments getting my things together for tomorrow’s walk. And finally I think I’m going to round it off with a European rail video diary, if I can find one lurking somewhere in YouTube’s labyrinthine libraries. Happy days!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Just opened this morning! The section under the Croke Park GAA stadium	Short part of the towpath west of Croke Park still under construction. Looks like two or three months work still needed

Lunch. I could barely move afterwards!	Doing my Mediterranean thing with the bougainvilleas, again

The Irish Ceramics Society were having an exhibition in the lecture area above the café in the Botanics and I had a quick look round – it was quite interesting	I particularly liked this – thing (because I don’t know what else to call it) – by Grainne Watts

Shiny and new – let’s hope the towpath stays looking like this for a good long time