Kev n Jens Adventures: Howth & Our Last Day in Dublin

May 22, 2025 - Today we are using our Visitor Leap Pass to go to the seaside town of Howth. It is a 30 minute trip on the DART train from Tara St Station. We took a bus to the train station (a 15 minute trip). Howth has a Cliff Trail that you can access by walking from the town. I had read that you can also take a bus to the summit and take the Cliff Trail back to the town. We decided to give that a try, but the signage at the summit wasn't great and we got onto the Upper Cliff Trail, which wasn't right next to the edge. It was a nice walk, but once we reached the bottom we decided to walk up the Howth Cliff Walk (from Balscadden Rd). Both were beautiful walks and it wasn't too much walking to do the entire loop, which was probably around 4 miles. Once we made it back to the summit we took the bus back to town, where we had lunch (fish & chips) at Crabby Jo's-Wrights of Howth. Then we headed home on the train. In the evening we've been eating dinner in the apartment, since we usually eat a larger lunch out. Tesco is downstairs and we usually stop for a 40 cent demi pain to eat with a salad. One night we had frozen pizzas and another we had frozen spaghetti dinner.

lots of fresh fish in Howth

Ireland's Eye is the island just beyond the Howth harbour

Howth Lighthouse

A look back at the town of Howth from the end of the harbour

It's a working harbour (love the colors on these boats)

pretty doorway

a hungry seal looking for a handout

We made it to the summit

The Upper Cliff Trail is very wide and nice walk (no cliff edges to worry about)

Bailey Lighthouse

interesting bench

After we realized we weren't on the Lower Cliff Trail we ended up on this little skinny "road" called Cowbooter Lane which connected up with Balscadden Rd and then the lower Cliff Trail.

The first views looking back on the Howth Harbor

pretty fence

this trail was actually on the edge

Beautiful day!

Kev’s favorite pose

May 23, 2025 - We decided that today we would hang at home in the morning and do laundry since tomorrow we leave for Belfast. We had lunch in the apartment then took the bus to St Patrick's Cathedral. It was $10/person to tour the cathedral and they had lots of info as we walked through, describing the cathedral's history. Next we went to Dublin Castle (which didn't really seem like a castle). It was also going to be $10/person but since we were seniors we were told that today seniors were free. It was some special day that had to do with wisdom...we'll take it! Just around the corner from Dublin Castle was George St Arcade, which we walked through and then took the bus back to the apartment before going to Church Cafe for dinner and a few beers while we listened to the Irish music (and dance) that they feature every night.

Laundry day...it took us an hour to figure out how to use the laundry, but we were happy once we figured it out. It will be nice to start the next leg of our trip with clean clothes.

It was a rainy afternoon in Dublin and we were happy that we still have another day on our Visitor Leap Passes so we could take the bus everywhere we wanted to go.

We walked by this famous street

St Patrick's Cathedral wasn't as pretty as Christ Church that we saw earlier this week. The spire looks out of place to me (it was added in 1749). The church was founded in 1191 as a Roman Catholic Church and is currently the National Church of Ireland

Isn't that a great floor, not your typical floor for a cathedral

Lots of pretty stained glass windows

that bench doesn't look very inviting

There was an audio guide that led us through a self guided tour of Dublin Castle. The Castle was originally built in the 13th century as a medieval fortress and served as the seat of British government for centuries. Now it hosts state receptions and presidential inaugurations