Ireland day 1549. Thursday 25 December 2025- Connemara Christmas Day

Today’s summary	Tea and yogurt in bed then put the turkey in the oven and went on a short walk to the Alcock and Brown memorial. It celebrates the first transatlantic flight which landed here from Canada in June 1919. Came back and cooked the rest of the lunch which we had in the late afternoon. Delicious! Did the tidying up then had a relaxing evening opening presents and sitting by the fire.
Today’s weather	Dry bright cool windy and sunny. Similar to yesterday but colder and windier. Strong easterly wind. Appx 5c

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): Alcock and Brown memorial

Commentary

Happy Christmas! Our fifth since we came to Ireland. It’s been a great day.

We started in leisurely fashion and had tea and yogurt in bed for breakfast. Then once we were up and about we did some early prep for Christmas lunch and – most importantly – got the turkey in the oven.

Next on the agenda was a preprandial stroll. About half an hour away (on foot) down the road from where we are staying is a memorial to Alcock and Brown – British aviators who made the first transatlantic flight in June 1919. They flew from St John’s in Newfoundland and crash-landed close to the memorial after a 16½ hour flight.

So we set off down the road (there’s no path but the road was fairly quiet) to the memorial. It’s at the top of a small hill and today – with brilliant clear skies – the views west out to the coast and east towards the Twelve Bens, were stunning.

We had a quick look round then paused to take a video call from family normally in Canada but today in Mexico. Looked almost as nice down there as it does in Connemara!

Once we’d finished our chat, we retraced our steps more or less directly back to the cottage, taking a short diversion to check out the boardwalk which leads to the Alcock and Brown crash landing site itself. We will come back and walk down there sometime in the coming couple of days.

As soon as we got back to the cottage, it was all hands on deck to peel carrots, trim the sprouts, and get the potatoes roasting. Soon that was done and we had a brief pause to open the champagne and toast the year just finished and the year to come.

Eventually everything was finished and we sat down to eat. A fantastic feast! Almost all down to Val’s hard work. Well done and thanks! We didn’t rush to dine, and our meal was interspersed with several digestive pauses. Once we were finally finished, I did the washing up and we relaxed for a bit and exchanged gifts. My main gift from Val was a new ultra-lightweight backpack and my main gift to Val was a book on Joseph Hooker – the explorer and botanist. Val then lit the fire and had a video call with family in Bristol. Then I followed suit and called more family, in Sheffield.

Well that’s a wrap for Christmas 2025. Time now to finish off the champagne, dig out the next bottle of Malbec, and locate the Christmas cake. And finally, when all that’s done, have a nice cup of tea by the fire. Aaah I must be getting old.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The black sheep of the family decided to cross the road..	Val with her new best friends – genuine Connemara ponies!

A the memorial – shaped like a tailfin and about six meters high	Alcock and Brown, in a nutshell

Wild Atlantic Way marker at the entrance to the Alcock and Brown crash landing site. The Irish-Italian radio operator Guglielmo Marconi also built a radio base near here for the first transatlantic telegraph service. It was eventually destroyed by the IRA in the 1922 civil war. Marconi was the great grandson of the founder of Jamesons distillery	Here comes the turkey! Enough to feed an army for six months.

Reflections in “our” river at the bottom of our garden