Howth

Another lucky weather day. We left Dublin on the train - love those trains - and headed for Howth. We had wanted to go there yesterday but one town was enough to explore. So, today it was Howth. When we arrived it was raining and we were worried that we wouldn't be able to walk the cliffs.


This is a view from the road we walked up to get to the cliff path. We were going to come back if the rain was too much. It was so wet that I was covering the camera with my hat so Anne could take photos here.


These fishermen reminded us of Newfoundland with the yellow oilskins. I'm sure it was not too pleasant out there.


Just before the cliff path we passed a martello tower. These were built in the time of the Napoleonic wars and could garrison up to 25 men and were sturdy enough to withstand cannon fire. They also had cannons mounted on the flat roofs.

The rain dried up, the sun shone and we went cliff walking. The path was steep, steep at first and then levelled out. We tried to get a photo that would show how close to the edge we really were but it's gard to see. We are standing back from the edge of the path and with the strong wind that blew constantly, it was easy to imagine a wrong step sending you over the rocks. It wasn't really dangerous with a path that was usually about three feet wide and another two feet of ground beside it. Occasionally, the path went inland a few feet and seemed to tunnel through ferns and blackberries. Yuck! It was so humid and hot and green-smelling. I liked the fresh wind much better.

Still no puffins but we did find colonies of gulls nesting on the steep rocks. And lots of cormorants just resting on top of big pointy rocks.


We had actually intended to take a fairly short circle route along the cliffs and back to the village. We looked up and there was the lighthouse! This meant we'd taken a wrong turn somewhere. Luckily, a local man came swinging along the path with his umbrella rolled and ready. That was our clue that he was a local. He kindly gave us directions to the path out as well as to the nearest pub. Information which was music to our ears. This route turned out to be the 7 kilometer trail - our Kerry walking guide would be so proud of us.

After we left the pub we still had a long descent down to the village. We could have taken a bus but we're too tough now for that. So, we trekked down and down and down til we reached the harbor...


And here we headed for the train station where we actually found a train waiting to take us to Dublin. As we sped along the tracks, the gray clouds got darker and it was pouring as we pulled into Connolly station. Now, the sun is trying to shine again. We've had so many lucky days.

Now, it's time to start packing. This is my last post from Ireland. It's been amazing. I love this country. I'll have 12 hours of flying time to think of all the wonderful things we've done and seen. There'll be more posts about Ireland when I get home.