Ireland day 1511. Monday 17 November 2025- PortSuttHow

Today’s summary	In the morning cleared out more of my wardrobe and Val made some biscuits and did some recycling. Around noon we set off to walk to Howth, calling at Portmarnock (lunch from Lidl) and Sutton. More refreshments in Insomnia, Howth, then DART and bus back to Malahide. Curry and TV in the evening.
Today’s weather	Dry and bright with some sun. Very light northerly wind. Appx 8c

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): Malahide Portmarnock Sutton Howth

Commentary

Now that the weather has calmed down a bit, we thought we’d try and get out today and pick up our Howth walk that Claudia truncated prematurely last week. But first, there were a couple of jobs we needed to do.

After tea and breakfast, Val decided she would make some biscuits and do the recycling. Meanwhile, I dealt with the bins and continued my clothing rationalising programme. Today was the turn of socks and underwear and, after careful scrutiny, I decided it might be time to dispose of some of the more unsavoury articles. So, with more than a little regret, half of them went in the bin. Anyway the wardrobe looks a little less intimidating now.

Once all this upsetting pruning was finished, we had a quick coffee then headed out into the day. It’s a lot cooler now than it has been for a while, but today there was no wind to speak of, and it wasn’t raining, so it felt quite pleasant.

We set off south in the direction of Howth, over Paddy’s Hill and down to Portmarnock. By the time we got there, we were surprisingly hungry. So rather than just pressing on, we caved in to our appetites and ducked into Lidl to pick up sustenance. We got some pizza type things from the bakery counter, which we took out to the nearby park to polish off. They looked good and tasted remarkably unpleasant. Anyway hunger was sated.

From there, we continued south on our normal route, via the Baldoyle Greenway (remarking on the rapid development of the new housing estate) and past Sutton station, where Sam’s cafe and the bus stop have been extensively remodelled to provide much more shelter. A great improvement. From there it was only a short hop to Burrow beach and on to Howth.

As soon as we arrived we made our way direct to Insomnia cafe for yet more refreshments. It’s been one of those days. And once suitably refreshed, we moved on again to Howth station where a convenient Dart took us back to Sutton. The 102 pulled in outside Sutton station pretty much as soon as the Dart left so we jumped on and were whisked, along with a throng of excitable schoolchildren (quite amusing to observe actually!) straight back to Malahide.

After a brief detour to SuperValu for milk, we were quickly back in the flat. For dinner we had more of Val’s delicious beef curry, followed by some of Val’s delicious oat biscuits. Yes there is a bit of a theme here. Finally, we rounded off the evening to the accompaniment of a James Bond film that we hadn’t seen for a while. After all, the old ones are always the best ones, as in so many walks of life.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Val looking pleased with herself – she had just collected a good haul of oak galls from a recently deciduous oak tree in the demesne. Next years ink already beckons!	I loved this contrast between the ghost birch and the green, green grass of Ireland (in Bawn Grove)

Free community mini-library in Carrickhill Road, Portmarnock. What a good idea!	The most memorable aspect of our visit to Lidl Portmarnock for me was the discovery of the crinoidal limestone paving slabs outside. What this particular creature was 320,000,000 years ago I’m afraid I just don’t know

Storm Claudia seemed to have swept up a load the shells of deceased sea-urchins from the seabed and deposited them en masse along the high tide line at Burrow Beach, Sutton. I’ve never seen anything like it before	Fishing vessel (or similar) in dry-dock at Howth

There’s a bit of a tradition in Dublin of painting these roadside electricity cabinets in jaunty colours. This one, at the junction of Strand Road and Coast Road, near the Sluice River, shows a summery scene on Portmarnock promenade, with the ice-cream kiosk and Martello Tower (the one now undergoing extensive renovations)