Ireland day 1393. Tuesday 22 July 2025- Spice Bag

Today’s summary	Took Val to the airport first thing. She’s going to Copenhagen for a few days to visit relatives. Afterwards, I went to the gym for my usual swim / cycle workout. Got a meal deal from Tesco and in the afternoon walked over the hill to have lunch on Portmarnock beach. Half price pop-pop “spice bag” and a beer for dinner. More travel videos in the evening.
Today’s weather	Overcast but dry. Light westerly 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): Winding Down coast walk

Commentary

For the third time in four days I was up and ready to go before 7 am. This is a bit too much like going to work! The reason for today’s early start was an airport drop-off: Val is going to Copenhagen (returning on Friday) to visit some relatives, and had a 9 am flight to catch.

Anyway, I did the honours and was back at the flat by 7:30 am, leaving me a whole day free to fill as I chose. So I pottered around for an hour or so, had another cup of tea, then dug out my sports gear and wandered off down to the gym.

As usual, I did a few minutes on the exercise bike and then some lengths in the pool. For some reason, although I actually felt quite good this morning, the going was tougher than usual. I only managed 5.9 km on the bike in 30 mins whereas usually I do over 7. And my 50 x 21 m lengths (1050m total) took me 35 minutes rather than 30. Whatever the reason for the laggardly performance, I enjoyed the session and the cup of coffee and biscuits when I got back to the flat afterwards felt well deserved.

On the way back from the gym, I’d picked up a meal deal at Tesco. So once I’d had my coffee, I packed my bag with waterproofs and the meal deal and set off on a short walk.

It won’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that I chose my old favourite, the demesne-hill-coast walk, as my route of the day. Although today I added on an extra twiddly bit near the castle, just to mix it up a bit.

It didn’t take long to get over to Portmarnock, though I did pause at the top of Paddy’s Hill to admire the exceptionally clear view. The Mournes were as plain as the nose on your face, but once again North Wales remained disappointingly elusive. There were some bumps on the horizon in the general direction of Wales, but my map convinced me they were in the wrong place to be mountains. So I was forced to conclude they were clouds. Maybe Paddy’s Hill is just too remote from Wales, or too far below the horizon, for Snowdonia ever to be in sight.

I dropped down to the shore and made my way to the beach to enjoy my lunch. I bypassed the shop, for once, and had the meal deal I’d picked up earlier at Tesco. For once, it wasn’t blowing a gale or raining, so I lingered for a while and watched the world go by.

The return journey along the beach was swift and uneventful. The principal objects of note were the numerous jellyfish stranded at the high tide line.

I was soon back at the flat and downing a much needed couple of cups of tea. Then I read my rail journeys book for a bit, caught up on my email and social media, and thought about dinner.

Tonight I’m having a pop-pop “spice bag” that I got half price at Tesco while I was picking up my lunch. Spice bags are a uniquely Irish phenomenon (at least I think they are – someone will correct me if I’m wrong, I’m sure) and consist mostly of chips, chicken and curry sauce. Possibly not the healthiest meal that’s ever been invented, but perfect comfort food.

Assuming I survive the spice bag, I’m planning on watching a few more rail travel videos. I’m fascinated by the possibility of travelling to Istanbul by rail, so will see what YouTube has to offer. Armchair travelling has quite a lot to commend it, although it can’t quite compete with the real thing. Ah well, it’s good to dream.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Toot toot – here comes Toots!	I’ve never actually seen anyone using the boules court up in the demesne – though according to the notice board, the Castle Boules team meets here every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 11am – and everyone is welcome!

Perfect example of a fairy ring growing up by Paddy’s Hill. The warm wet weather has prompted the fruiting bodies (aka toadstools) to pop up up exactly in the “ring” – which marks where the fungal mycelium is growing underground.	I’m not exactly sure what this dandelion-like plant growing on the coast is (that’s Lambay on the horizon beyond). One source identifies it as perennial sowthistle (Sonchus arvensis) but that was a based on a specimen growing in Alaska. I’m not convinced it has managed to disperse itself all the way to Ireland from there. But you never know. It was quite spectacular anyway

*Six-spot burnet (Zygaena trifolii) and bumblebee (Bumblius beeus) sharing lunch on a clump of scabious growing by the coast road*	Last gasp of the jellyfish before it turns into a jellycrisp – or the tide comes in

Mmmm!