Ireland day 1536. Friday 12 December 2025- Calm

Today’s summary	Had a good day not doing very much. Decent weather and an extended loop walk down the coast. Casserole and rice for dinner, then a bit more Netflix
Today’s weather	Dry sunny and bright. Light south westerly wind. Appx 9c

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): Extended Hill and Coast in the Sun

Commentary

It’s amazing just how much more enjoyable your day can be when you don’t have to start it with an argument with someone over the phone. So today came as a refreshing departure from the norm of the last few days. Nobody to be chased, no threats to be issued, and a great deal less stress all round.

Making the most of this good start, Val and I enjoyed a leisurely cup of tea and some cereal for breakfast. Then Val went up to the castle to pick up some items related to her job. I meanwhile tidied up a few outstanding bits of paperwork.

Once she was back, we looked at the weather forecast and then decided what to do with the rest of the day. Outside, it was dry and sunny, and not too windy, and it looked like the decent spell would last all day. So we decided to take our chances and go on a slightly longer walk. And – in a radical departure from the norm – not to take waterproofs with us.

Our loop walk today was an extended version of our favourite “hill and coast” circuit. Along through the edge of the Demesne, up Seamount Road to Paddy’s Hill, down again to Portmarnock town centre, then out to the coast via the golf course car park.

It was really enjoyable all the way – good views, some rejuvenating sun, and not too cold. On the Irish Sea horizon was a large red ship we’d never seen before. We of course had to spend some time identifying and reading up about it. It turned out to be the Kess “Thames Highway” and it was anchored right off Ireland’s Eye. A bit of online research quickly revealed that it’s a commercial car transporter – it can carry up to an amazing 1600 cars and apparently was on its way from Bremerhaven to Dublin. You can see it in the banner image at the top of this post. But perhaps the best bit was at Portmarnock beach where we went to the shop to get coffees and cut-price pastries which we enjoyed along with a packet of crisps down by the swimming shelter.

It was a short hop back to the flat from there, along the coast road passing the Martello tower where the restoration work appears to have been abandoned, and calling off briefly in Tesco for some teabags on the way.

This evening we’re going to finish off the beef casserole for dinner and probably watch some more Netflix. I should in passing mention also last night’s viewing. On a whim, we decided to watch “Jay Kelly” – a newish George Clooney film about an ageing film star having a mid life identity crisis. It was quite interesting in that Clooney is of a similar vintage to us, but otherwise perhaps a bit self-indulgent. Another solid 6.5 from me, I think. Let’s see if we can do a bit better tonight!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Heading from the Demesne to Seamount along the Bawn Grove access path	Coming into Portmarnock – the low level winter sun (only nine days to midwinter, yippee!) made it look quite attractive

Stepping out into the sunshine. Val at the far end of Portmarnock beach	To infinity and beyond! Looking north up the beach towards the bathing pavilion – barely visible on the horizon

Turkey and stuffing crisps. Totally artificial and totally delicious. Who needs Christmas dinner when you can get it all in a packet?	Building work on the Martello seems to have ground to a halt. It certainly seemed to have an air of dereliction about it and even to a casual observer, it’s still clearly very far from being finished. perhaps the owner has run out of the money, or maybe the builder has gone bust

Male hazel catkins. Another welcome sign that spring will soon be with us