Ireland day 1395. Thursday 24 July 2025- Sutton 102

Today’s summary	Spent the morning doing a few chores then went to the gym. Completed the usual cycle/swim routine. Nice and quiet today. After light lunch, walked over the hill and on to Sutton via Portmarnock and Baldoyle. Caught the 102 back then had pop pop chicken pasta for dinner. Finished off with travel videos (again!). Val still away, back tomorrow.
Today’s weather	Overcast but dry in the morning and early afternoon. Sunny by evening. Light north 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): To Sutton for the 102

Commentary

Val’s still away (back tomorrow) so I had another day to myself. I’m deliberately trying not to fill up my diary with commitments at the moment, so I had a free day stretching luxuriously ahead of me.

First up, I did a couple of chores around the flat, trying to keep the place looking half-decent. After that, I got my gym things together and headed down the road to tackle my usual cycle / swim routine. It was nice and quiet in the gym – I think everyone is away on their summer holidays. But just like last time, I was a bit slow, for some reason.

After a quick lunch back at the flat – basically: oatcakes, yogurt, raspberries and coffee – I put the washing on and started formulating plans for the afternoon.

In the end I plumped for a walk down the coast to Sutton, with the bus back. It’s a nice straightforward walk and it makes a change from the Portmarnock hill and coast circuit.

I enjoyed the walk. For once, there wasn’t a biting headwind, which made the going much easier. Along the Baldoyle greenway, I was slightly taken aback to see work had begun on a gigantic new 296-dwelling housing development. It’s going to take years to complete, and will certainly change the nature of the area.

The greenway also supports a significant number of ragwort plants, several of which seemed to be hosting healthy colonies of cinnabar moth caterpillars. They are only things that will eat these plants, I think, as they are poisonous (and the caterpillars cunningly sequester the toxin, which in turn makes them toxic, and thus immune to predators).

I looked in at the new Dublin Bay café in Baldoyle as I passed. It seemed quite nice and I was hoping to get a coffee. But it was about to close, and I’d only have had five minutes to drink it. So I decided to give it a miss this time.

I got to Sutton station shortly afterwards and to my disappointment Sam’s café was similarly in the process of closing, so I missed out on refreshment there too. But the 102 handily came in just a few minutes after I arrived, so I hopped in and was back in Malahide just before 6pm.

For dinner, I’m having a pop-pop “pulled chicken fillet and wholemeal pasta” meal for dinner. It’s by the same outfit that made the spice bag that I had a couple of days ago. I have to reveal that it wasn’t actually very nice (I don’t think I’ll be exploring that option again), so I’m hoping for better things with the pasta. I’ll report back tomorrow.

Finally, I think I’ll finish off with some more travel videos. Last night I went from Huerta to Santa Cruz de Tenerife by ferry and it looked a bit challenging. Perhaps I’ll put that one on the back burner for a while.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Massive new building project starting alongside the Baldoyne Greenway (at the northern, Portmarnock, end)	Here are all the details

First blackberries of the season just beginning to ripen (on Bawn Grove)	One of many exotic echiums which seem to be thriving on Ireland’s east coast (or at least on this part of it) this year. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from compact shrubs like this one, to giant spiky specimens that look like Arizonan saguaros

Putting a brave face on it. No time for coffee at this new café before it closed. Good excuse to come back	Arriving at Sutton. Sam’s café was also closing, but the 102 arrived soon after me, so the wait wasn’t too insufferable

Spot the tiger-y caterpillars! I counted six