A Day in Howth

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Howth, Co. Fingal, Ireland

And now, back to travel-- the other reason I'm here. One not-too-rainy Saturday afternoon, Anna, Emma, Erin and I decided to strike out for Howth on our first adventure outside of Dublin. The story is really best told through pictures, so, try to follow along...

Our first time riding the DART, the train that goes up and down the coast. Howth was only about 10 minutes north of Dublin.

Howth is mostly a fishing area-- lots of boats, fish shops, and harbors.

Some friendly seals we met in the harbor. They just kept popping up as if to say, "Look how cute I am. Feed me??"

We set off on a walk around the Howth peninsula, and the seaside cliffs were absolutely gorgeous. Supposedly on a clear day you can see all the way to Wales.

Our dog friend, christened Becks (named after a beer, as we only thought appropriate in Ireland). He followed us for quite a while, bounding along the path, happy as can be, and made fast friends with Anna.

This was our vista as we stopped to eat lunch. The picture can't do justice to the way the sun was breaking through the clouds, lighting up patches of sea and illuminating the backdrop for the lighthouse on the peninsula.

As we progressed, our path got more and more muddy. Here's Erin and Anna, conquering the muck.

Emma, pausing to take pictures of some of the interesting foliage.

Looking back along the coastline we've walked, including the lovely stone garden wall we followed. The view was truly spectacular.

Erin and Anna, trying to keep warm while enjoying the view. Erin taught us a very useful penguin dance to keep the blood flowing in your fingers.

Parts of the hike became very steep, with stairs carved into the rock, and even these triangular hand-holds carved out to help you along.

The end of our hike brought us back inland and along the ridge of a golf course-- we were instructed to move quickly so as not to get hit by stray balls from the driving range. You can see here where Howth peninsula connects to the mainland of Ireland.

Our hike was a long one, and by the time we circled back around, it was dark and we were exhausted. After determining that the local food was either expensive or take-away only (it was simply too cold now to eat fish and chips seaside, unfortunately), we grabbed some snack food and took the next DART back to Dublin.