Ireland day 1540. Tuesday 16 December 2025- Missed Train

Today’s summary	Started the day on a good note when money we were owed, and missing documents both turned up. Planned to go to Athy to visit the new Shackleton museum but just missed the train from Heuston. So walked back across town and went to an art display in the Stables (Dubh Linn gardens) and did some shopping. Train back then had fajitas for dinner and watched TV.
Today’s weather	Cool clear and sunny after a frosty start. Hardly any wind. Appx 6c

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): Southside Dublin West to East

Commentary

The last couple of days have been pretty good, actually. Yesterday the money that we were owed was finally paid, and today the papers that had gone missing turned up. So relief all round.

It was another nice day outside so we thought we would make use of free rail travel again and go down to Athy, on the Waterford line, to take a look at the Ernest Shackleton museum. Things didn’t quite go according to plan, but we had a very good day nonetheless.

We were a bit slow in leaving the flat, and didn’t get away until almost noon. Then there was a ten minute wait for a train, which dawdled its way into Dublin. The red line Lúas to Heuston plotted a similarly leisurely path with the result that when we arrived at the station, the 1310 to Waterford was happily trundling off leaving us firmly behind on platform 8. Given that the next train to Athy wasn’t leaving for two hours, we abandoned Shackleton for the time being and considered our Plan B.

Given that the weather was quite decent, we decided to get sandwiches from the Heuston Pret and then walked across town to the small park by St Audoen’s Church where we found a sunny spot to enjoy them. It was a pleasant break and with no wind we weren’t cold and so could afford to linger.

Eventually though we decided it was time to move on. So we continued our eastward progress, passing Christchurch Cathedral and ending up at the Dubh Linn gardens. From there we went into the Chester Beattie gallery to pick up a few bits at the shop, then walked across the green to The Stables, where we had a look at a gallery of Island Art. A bit disappointing, to be honest.

Heading onwards, we walked on to Grafton Street where we sought out the Marks and Spencer food hall. We took the opportunity to pick up a few of the things we’ll need for Christmas (gulp – it’s only just over a week away now!) so that not everything would be a last minute rush.

Finally, we completed our west-east walk at Pearse station, from where after a short wait we were able to catch a train back to Malahide.

In the evening, we had delicious beef and avocado fajitas and then watched a little lightheaded TV. So although things didn’t work out quite as expected, the Plan B was pretty good – and Athy will still be there tomorrow.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


In St Audoen’s garden, there was a curious stone monolith with head-height-and -ize hollows carved in it. You were invited to put your head in the hole and hum – and find the pitch which made the cavity – and your whole body – resonate. Quite a remarkable effect	Christchurch Cathedral

In the “Islands” exhibition in the Stables gallery, Dubh Linn gardens. A curious collection of Irish and Caribbean art – none of which worked terribly well, I have to admit	Looking across the Dubh Linn garden to the back of the Castle



St Audoen’s Church – a sunny spot for lunch