15 km walk on the Cliffs of Howth

Howth is magic, it's true - just as their web-page says. We took a short ride from Dublin by train and after a half of an hour or a bit more we reached a magnificent small seashore village Howth. At first we were a bit afraid of the weather, because just when we reached it started to rain, but we spent this part in a cafe and it passed quite quickly.

I didn't know too much about Howth before - just knew that it's one of the well-known seaside villages near Dublin, where it is possible to hike on the cliffs and buy fresh fish from the little shops on the pier. On that day the village was quiet, but the people who were spending their time there were absolutely aware that they are on holiday and in spite of the cool and windy weather everybody was wearing their summer clothes and outfacing the cold. I have to say that I was not so brave and during the first hour I couldn't stop thinking about my raincoat that I had left.

The internet describes Hawth as a small and bustling fishing village which is popular among the tourists and locals and After walking through the small town or village you will soon reach the road that goes above the sea and after some time you will reach the sign that explains the different routes. You can pick from four different routes, which are called loops and they all actually start from the railway station, The Cliff Path Loop is 6 kms long and is described as easy, the Trampline Loop is 7 kms and also classifies as easy, the Black Linn Loop is a km longer and described as moderate and the last one Bog of the Frogs is 10 (but according to some pages 15) kms long and marked as hard.

We took the last one, because we both like walking and really wanted to spend the whole day outdoors. Almost the whole hiking path was on the clifftops and the landmarks that we passed are called Nose of Howth, which was the beginning on our hike with stunning views of the Lambay Island and Baily Lighthouse beneath. It took us about 3-4 hours to take the whole tour and during this time the weather changed from the threatening autumn to the mild summer day and the views beneath  us were marvellous and picturesque.

Especially nice were all these secret beaches and it was almost impossible to understand where were the tracks that reached them, but as we saw some people enjoying their time there, it was definitely possible to do it. The end of the track went over the golf ground, passed some really nice country houses and ended in the forest which was quite like a jungle and lead us back to the village at last.

This time we didn't find out how to get to these lovely little beaches beneath the cliffs, because we just wanted to walk through the whole Loop, take photos and enjoy walking. Maybe some next time it will be a good idea to take your picnic basket with some snacks and wine with you and enjoy the beaches beneath the cliffs. In this case of course it's wiser to take the shorter Loop.

We ended our day on the pier of course and had a look into every single little fish shop. The timing was not the best, because it was the late afternoon and everybody knows that the best time to get fresh fish is at the early hours of the day, but anyway we got some monk fish and for me it was the first time in my entire life to eat monk fish.

After that we couldn't help, but had to wonder around all these nice small seafood restaurants which were still quite empty, because it was not the real dinner time. but we found a really good offer and enjoyed our fish plate in a cosy little restaurant and we really couldn't expect the better end for the day.

Back at home we put our monk fish into the fridge to wait for the next evening, because after that huge fish plate and a bottle of white crispy wine we were too full to start to cook again. and I don't have to say how tasty it was. I looked it up from the dictionary and I know now the name in Estonian too, but I really had not eaten it before. Hopefully I will eat it again quite soon, if not before, then the next summer.