Our 2013 trip to Ireland to hike the Kerry Way would take us first to Dublin for a few days. Melanie did a summer program at Trinity College in Dublin in 2003, which is also the first time we journeyed to the Ring of Kerry, so Trinity has a special place in our hearts. Whenever we travel to Europe, we like to stop in Dublin, if at all possible.
Our first Ireland hike, a precursor to the main event, was Howth Head, a hike that is a short train ride north of Dublin. It’s a loop whose trail head is basically the Howth train station.
The day we hiked was a typical in our experience for June in Ireland; it was windy and and occasionally quite rainy. However, the walk along the coastline of Howth Head, a stubby peninsula, afforded fantastic ocean views and took us past the Baily Lighthouse. Interestingly, through that first section of the hike, the cliffs extended above us and protected us from much of the weather; the rain even let up.
We would soon discover the truth of that as we entered the second half of the loop and entered the full windward force of the wind and rain. There was a point in the hike that transversed across a golf course, our trail guide paperwork warned us of this and said to just have a care about golfers, don’t get in their way and be mindful of golf balls in flight. Since it was raining, we assumed it would be no problem.
We were wrong.
Much to our surprise as we crossed the golf course, lo and behold, golfers were plugging along and playing through. They were as determined to finish their game as we were to finish our hike. Ultimately, (well I can’t speak for the golfers), we finished our hike. As we made our way back to the train station the rain thinned and stopped.
Of course it did.
We had survived our first official Ireland hike.
Melanie and I had, by that point, travelled to Ireland on three previous occasions and done a number of sight-seeing activities. We had never hiked, though. We had seen the Ring of Kerry from various points on a tour bus; we had taken a train to Northern Ireland and hiked on the cliffs round Giant’s Causeway, we walked to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. But this was the first time we had gone to a place in Ireland for the express purpose of hiking. You know, hiking hiking!
This was different, by country mile. Even on this short hike, there was a sense of being on our own, separate from the safety of a tour in ways we had not experienced. We started to get a sense of how we would have to navigate for ourselves and depend on each other instead of a tour guide.
Little did we know how true that was….
Find the Howth Head hikes here (we did the Bog of Frogs...)
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