Ireland day 1410. Friday 08 August 2025- Hill Coast Potter

Today’s summary	Still feeling a bit battered by Covid. But managed to get out with Val and walk over the hill to the Spar shop for coffee and ice cream on Portmarnock beach. On return, finished off the sausages in cider for dinner then watched some TV later in the evening.
Today’s weather	Dry and bright with some sunny periods. Light south westerly wind. Appx 20c

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): Hill and Coast Potter

Commentary

Well I’ve still got covid, but the symptoms are easing a bit. The coughing has subsided, which is a relief as at one point I thought my chest was going to explode. Anyway, I’m not going to dwell on my ailments – nobody wants to read a blow by blow account of the development and progress of every symptom. But just before I move on to something more interesting, and in case you’re wondering – no, Val doesn’t seem to have picked up the virus from me. She has so far remained symptom-free. Long may it stay that way.

So in the spirit of forging ahead, after a decent night’s sleep, a good cup of coffee and some porridge for breakfast (thanks, Val, yet again), we decided we would go out and try a slightly longer walk. First, though, I did some Spanish homework while Val went out on her own to do a quick circuit of the Demesne on foot. She enjoyed the sojourn, particularly because she met a colleague from the museum while she was out, and spent a few minutes putting the world to rights with him.

For our joint walk we decided to do our favourite trundle over the hill and then on to the beach at Portmarnock. The advantage of this route is that there are several early breakout options – for example through Robswall – in case of excessive tiredness. In the worst case, I knew I could always get the 102 or H2 back from anywhere along the R106.

In the end, none of these “Plans B” turned out to be necessary. We successfully made it over the hill to the coast, where Val got us both coffees – and me an ice cream too – from the Spar shop. She also got us a couple of €2 Lotto scratch cards, just for fun.

We found a spot down on the beach out of the wind, where we enjoyed our refreshments and scratched our scratch cards. Between us we won the princely sum of €5, which gave us a handsome €1 return on our investment.

After all that excitement, we pottered off back to Malahide along the coast, admiring the view of Lambay, which seemed to bathed in sunshine the whole way as we walked.

We stopped off in town to get some mineral water from SuperValu – or rather Val did as I waited outside. Because I am supposed to be keeping away from people for five days, I can’t really go into shops again until Sunday or Monday.

Back at he flat, we finished off the evening with the last of the sausages in cider ( thanks, Val and Delia!) then watched some light hearted TV later on. It’s important to go to bed in a cheerful frame of mind, I have concluded , especially when you are ill.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


A rare look over the parapet southbound from OBB 26 on the Back Road. Such long straights!	At the moment, a lot of these vaguely globular puffballs seem to be popping up in the meadows leading up to, and on the top of, Paddy’s Hill. These I might actually be tempted to eat, as they are relatively easy to identify and are said to be nice when sliced and fried in butter. They are all a bit squashed though, unfortunately. (The fungus is the white thing, by the way. The black puffball is in fact my foot. It’s always important to include a known object for scale in photographs such as these, of course).

Lovely lollies! In my case it was a “Feast”. I really like them, and they are quite cheap, although they do have a tendency to melt very quickly	The Portmarnock Martello seems to look more and more like the Tower of Babel every day!

Some botanical treats! This first one is the wildflower border by the GAA fields in the Demesne. Worth recording another example of these fine creations, which have been a joy to see every summer since we moved to Ireland	For the second treat, take a look at these berries. I thought for a long time that they belonged to the Wayfaring tree (Viburnum lantana) but my Google shaped brain extension tells me they are actually Guelder Rose. And no – Guelder Rose isn’t the same as Wayfaring Tree (I thought it was). Although it’s the same genus, it is a different species. Specifically, it’s Viburnum opulis (whereas Wayfaring is lantana). Although lantana berries look very similar, the leaves are quite different. Lantana are more oval shaped, whereas opulis leaves are maple-shaped

And thirdly: A rather lovely solitary rose along Limetree avenue. It didn’t seem to have any smell, although that might just be a Covid artefact. It’s been a good year for the roses, as Elvis Costello might say