FAMILY WALKS AROUND DUBLIN

A WALKING GUIDE

ADRIAN HENDROFF is a member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild, Mountain Training Association and Mountaineering Ireland. His articles and photographs have featured in The Irish Times, Irish Examiner and magazines such as Trail, Outsider, Mountain World Ireland, Walking World Ireland, TGO, Irish Mountain Log, Trek & Mountain and Walking Wales Magazine. For more information, visit Adrian’s website and online gallery at www.adrianhendroff.com

You can also keep up to date at:

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Also by Adrian Hendroff

The Beara and Sheep’s Head Peninsulas: A Walking Guide

The Dingle, Iveragh & Beara Peninsulas: A Walking Guide

The Dingle Peninsula: A Walking Guide

Donegal, Sligo & Leitrim: Mountain & Coastal Hillwalks

From High Places: A Journey Through Ireland’s Great Mountains

Killarney to Valentia Island, The Iveragh Peninsula: A Walking Guide

The view towards Kelly’s Glen from the western slopes of Fairy Castle.

Disclaimer

Walking and hillwalking are risk sports. The author and The Collins Press accept no responsibility for any injury, loss or inconvenience sustained by anyone using this guidebook.

To reduce the chance of break-in to parked cars, walkers are advised to place all valuables and belongings out of sight.

Advice to Readers

Every effort is made by our authors to ensure the accuracy of our guidebooks. However, changes can occur after a book has been printed, including changes to rights of way. If you notice discrepancies between this guidebook and the facts on the ground, please let us know, either by email to enquiries@collinspress.ie or by post to The Collins Press, West Link Park, Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork, T12 N5EF, Ireland.

Acknowledgements

There are several people whose encouragement, participation and support were invaluable during the making of this guidebook, and to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude. In particular, I would like to thank my wife, Una, for the proof-reading, love and support. Thanks also to The Collins Press for the continued support in my work, and for your expertise as always. And finally thanks to Sarah, Niamh, Ciara, Emma, James, Aaron, Thomas, Joe Junior, Stephen, John O., John N., Sinead, Una, Kay, Shirley, Greta, Jeanne, Caitriona and Tanya who have accompanied me on some of the walks. Also in special remembrance of my late grandfather John Hendroff who passed away peacefully during the writing of this guidebook.

For all the family, with love

Contents

Route Location Map

Quick-Reference Route Table

Introduction

Using This Book

Route 1: Ardgillan Castle, Park and Demesne

Route 2: Skerries Slí na Sláinte

Route 3: Donabate Coastal Walks

Route 4: Malahide Marina, Estuary and Castle

Route 5: Portmarnock to Malahide Coastal Walk

Route 6: Ireland’s Eye

Route 7: Howth Northern and Eastern Loop

Route 8: Howth Southern Loop

Route 9: St Anne’s Park

Route 10: North Bull Island Loop

Route 11: Irishtown Nature Park and Poolbeg Lighthouse

Route 12: Phoenix Park

Route 13: Grand Canal and Dublin City Loop

Route 14: Dodder River Walk and Bushy Park

Route 15: Marlay Park

Route 16: Sandycove Heritage Trail

Route 17: Dalkey Quarry and Killiney Hill Circuit

Route 18: Rathmichael Woods Circuit

Route 19: Lead Mines Chimney and Carrickgollogan

Route 20: Barnaslingan Trail and The Scalp

Route 21: Prince William’s Seat and Raven’s Rock from Glencullen

Route 22: Three Rock Wood and Three Rock Mountain from Ticknock Lower

Route 23: Fairy Castle, Two Rock Mountain and Three Rock Mountain from Ticknock Upper

Route 24: Tibradden Mountain

Route 25: Cruagh Mountain Loop

Route 26: Massy’s Wood

Route 27: Hell Fire Club

Route 28: Glenasmole Reservoirs Loop

Route 29: Ballymorefinn Hill and Seahan Circuit

Route 30: Saggart Hill

Route Location Map

Route 1: Ardgillan Castle, Park and Demesne

Route 2: Skerries Slí na Sláinte

Route 3: Donabate Coastal Walks

Route 4: Malahide Marina, Estuary and Castle

Route 5: Portmarnock to Malahide Coastal Walk

Route 6: Ireland’s Eye

Route 7: Howth Northern and Eastern Loop

Route 8: Howth Southern Loop

Route 9: St Anne’s Park

Route 10: North Bull Island Loop

Route 11: Irishtown Nature Park and Poolbeg Lighthouse

Route 12: Phoenix Park

Route 13: Grand Canal and Dublin City Loop

Route 14: Dodder River Walk and Bushy Park

Route 15: Marlay Park

Route 16: Sandycove Heritage Trail

Route 17: Dalkey Quarry and Killiney Hill Circuit

Route 18: Rathmichael Woods Circuit

Route 19: Lead Mines Chimney and Carrickgollogan

Route 20: Barnaslingan Trail and The Scalp

Route 21: Prince William’s Seat and Raven’s Rock from Glencullen

Route 22: Three Rock Wood and Three Rock Mountain from Ticknock Lower

Route 23: Fairy Castle, Two Rock Mountain and Three Rock Mountain from Ticknock Upper

Route 24: Tibradden Mountain

Route 25: Cruagh Mountain Loop

Route 26: Massy’s Wood

Route 27: Hell Fire Club

Route 28: Glenasmole Reservoirs Loop

Route 29: Ballymorefinn Hill and Seahan Circuit

Route 30: Saggart Hill

Quick-Reference Route Table

Introduction

O cool is the valley now
And there, love, will we go
For many a choir is singing now
Where Love did sometime go.
And hear you not the thrushes calling,
Calling us away?
O cool and pleasant is the valley
And there, love, will we stay.

– ‘O Cool Is The Valley Now’ by James Joyce (1882–1941)

Dublin is Ireland’s capital city and its most populated county. The city and suburbs are a bustling and thriving urban metropolis with nearly 1.35 million people, making up nearly a third of Ireland’s overall population.

The official Irish name for Dublin is Baile Átha Cliath which means ‘town of the hurdled ford’, referring to a bank of wooden hurdles built across the River Liffey by the medieval Vikings. However, the name Dublin really originates from two Irish words: Dubh, meaning ‘black’, and Linn, meaning ‘pool’.

How it got its name is quite fascinating. For this, we have to step back in time and unlock the secrets of Dublin’s most important, yet forgotten river. The Poddle River begins in the Cookstown area, north-west of Tallaght, then flows east, north-east, and ultimately into the Liffey in Dublin city centre. Today, its outlet into the Liffey is little more than an open sewer, locked behind a metal gate and ignored by thousands of passers-by along Wellington Quay.

The Poddle is the river of old Dublin. The city could not have expanded in bygone years if not for the freshwater supply of the Poddle, in contrast to the salty and undrinkable water of the Liffey. But the Poddle is hidden today: concreted over and driven underground.

During the reign of the Vikings in medieval times, the Poddle flowed into a dark tidal pool where the clear river water entered the Liffey. The Vikings founded a settlement there around AD 841 and named it Dyflin, from the Irish Dubhlinn, or ‘Black Pool’. In later years the Black Pool was filled in. The site of Dyflin is where the Castle Gardens at Dublin Castle are today.

The Poddle River was crucial to the growth of the Viking settlement, both as a trading and defensive base. In fact, Dyflin, or Dubhlinn, was the commercial hub for the Vikings, similar to Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) today. It was where the Vikings built their ships and repaired their sails, loaded and unloaded their goods, and traded slaves, gold and silver.

The bloody victory by Brian Boru and his troops over an army led by Mael Morda and Earl Sigurd at Clontarf on Good Friday 1014 marked the end of the Viking reign in Ireland. However, by this time the Vikings had already begun to be absorbed into and stamp their mark on Irish Celtic society. The Hiberno-Norse King of Dublin, Sigtrygg Silkbeard, for example, went on to found Dublin’s famous Christ Church Cathedral in the city centre.

Following the end of the rule of Boru’s grandson Muirchertach in 1119, Dublin fell to Strongbow and the Normans in 1170. The Anglo-Normans imposed control over Dublin until it was handed over to English parliamentary forces in 1647, which commenced a lengthy period of British rule until the Easter Rising 1916.

For over 1,000 years when Dublin was ruled by the Vikings, the Anglo-Normans and the English, three rivers – the Tolka, Liffey and Dodder – flowed into the Irish Sea, forming a broad marshy delta around Dublin Bay. But starting in the late eighteenth century, a process of land reclamation and natural silting has filled this delta, moving the development of the city inward.

Today, Dublin city is divided into the north and south side by the Liffey River. Two canals, the Royal Canal and the Grand Canal, form a ring around the city centre. The city and its suburbs are sheltered by the quartzite finger of Howth in the north and the granite uplands of Killiney Hill and the Dublin Mountains to the south. Beyond the city to the north are windswept beaches, historic castles, beautiful villages, rugged headlands and islands. To the south there are many hectares of unspoilt countryside and mountain vistas to discover.

The Dublin Mountains Way is a 43km (27-mile) waymarked trail which runs from Shankill in the east through the mountains and finishes at the Sean Walsh Memorial Park in Tallaght. The long-distance trail crosses a variety of landscapes, from conical Carrickgollogan and the broad moorland of Fairy Castle to the idyllic Glenasmole Valley. It passes the highest pub in County Dublin (Johnnie Fox’s), an ancient tomb on Tibradden and the notorious Hell Fire Club building on Montpelier Hill.

The thirty routes in this guidebook will take you on a journey to some of County Dublin’s finest landscapes and historical attractions. The routes are ordered in a general north-to-south direction, starting from the eighteenth-century Ardgillan Castle near Skerries to Saggart Hill which rises above the foothills of Rathcoole. In between, it explores some lovely beaches in north Dublin, an island, the headland of Howth, various city and suburban parks, part of the Grand Canal and many of the highlights of the Dublin Mountains Way.

Above all, the guidebook is a journey on foot that everyone in the family can enjoy. The walks range from around 1 to 5 hours in length. They are all fairly easy walks with no significantly steep ascent or descent. The walks will take you across a variety of trails and footpaths within a park, through woods, along the coast or on a hill.

The routes in this book are handpicked to encourage people in Dublin who are not walkers to start the activity. It does not matter how old or how fit you are. The walks are also graded to suit children aged three, six, and ten years and above. They are also tailor-made to suit busy families who cannot afford to spend the entire day out walking.

There are also interesting stopping points to keep curious kids engaged, with tales of folklore, historical snippets and information on flora and fauna embedded within the route guide. The routes in this book will also be useful for families and visitors from outside of the Dublin area and tourists from abroad.

So as James Joyce puts it, ‘O cool and pleasant is the valley’ – so get outdoors, get walking, get exploring and get happy. I hope you share many enjoyable and memorable moments with your family and loved ones doing all the routes in this guidebook and discovering the very best County Dublin has to offer – happy hiking!

Using This Book

Maps

The maps in this guidebook are approximate representations of the routes only. For all Grade 2 and 3 routes in this guidebook, the use of detailed maps is recommended. A general knowledge of map reading and scale interpretation is useful for all routes in this book. For all upland routes in this book, and in particular the Grade 3 ones, basic map and compass skills are also recommended. For durability in wind and rain, it is suggested to photocopy and laminated the relevant section of the map to take with you on the walks. Especially relevant to the upland routes in this book, please note that forestry, tracks and waymarked trails may change from time to time, so get the latest editions of all maps.

The following maps are recommended for Grade 2 and 3 routes in this guidebook. Maps for Grade 1 routes are also listed, but since there are few to no navigational difficulties for these, the maps presented in this book should be sufficient for them.

• Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) 1:50,000 Discovery Series Sheet 43: Routes 1 and 3.

• Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) 1:50,000 Discovery Series Sheet 50: Routes 3, 5, 6 to 8, 10, 18 and 19.

• Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) 1:15,000 Official Dublin City and District Street Guide (ISBN 978-1-908852-54-0): Routes 2, 4 to 17.

• East West Mapping 1:30,000 The Dublin Mountains & North Wicklow: Routes 15, 20 to 30.

All maps may be purchased from most outdoor shops or online from: www.osi.ie or www.eastwestmapping.ie

Grid References

Grid references (e.g. O 081₂₃ 196₉₈) provided in this book should help you plan a route and upload it to your GPS, or to use your GPS to check a grid reference. Set your GPS to use the Irish Grid (IG). Note that GPS units are precise to 5 digits, whereas a 3-digit precision will usually suffice using map and compass, and hence these are outlined in bold.

Walking Times

Walking times in this book are calculated based on individual speeds of somewhere between 2 to 3km per hour, taking into account walking speeds of young children, especially from three to ten years. One minute has also been added for every 10m of ascent so, for example, if a height gain of 150m is the case, then 15 minutes have been added to the total walking time. A 6km walk with a total of 150m ascent will take approximately 2¼ to 3¼ hours. In some routes, I have also added time for the difficulty or length of terrain.

Note that the ‘Time’ stated in the routes of this guidebook does not include the additional time required for stops, lunch, drinks and photography.

Metric and imperial units are given for the summary at the start of the route for ‘Distance’ and ‘Ascent’. All heights of summits are also given in metric and imperial units. However, elsewhere in the text only metric distances and heights are given.

Walk Grades

Walks in this book are graded 1 to 3 based on level of difficulty, with 1 being the easiest and 3 the hardest. Note that in winter under snow and ice conditions, all Grade 3 routes are unsuitable for young children. All Grade 3 routes require hiking boots with good ankle support – two-season ones are fine and these can be used at any time of the year apart from winter. You can get away with a good pair of runners for all Grade 1 routes. For a summary of footwear for all the routes see the Quick-reference Route Table on pp 8–9.

Grade 1: Suitable for adult beginners and children aged three years and above. These routes are on canal, coastal, hill, mudflats, park, river, road, townland or woodland trails with good and firm underfoot conditions. There are few to no navigational difficulties as the routes are generally easy or signposted throughout. Grade 1 routes involve distances of up to 7km in length, negligible or up to 100m height gain, and are up to 3½ hours long. The exception to this rule is Route 6: Ireland’s Eye (2.5km, 90m), which has been assigned Grade 2 due to its distance from the mainland, terrain and ruggedness of the walk.

Grade 2: Suitable for adult beginners and children aged six years and above. These routes are generally on formal trails or well-graded, constructed paths with good underfoot conditions. However, there may be some sections of open countryside or slightly rougher ground. The routes are generally signposted, but there may be sections with no signs. Grade 2 routes involve distances of up to 9km in length, up to 210m height gain and are up to 4¼ hours long.

Grade 3: Suitable for adults with basic hillwalking experience and children aged ten years and above. There may be some formal and signposted paths but generally these routes involve informal paths and slightly rougher ground on open mountainside. Basic map and compass navigational skills in all weather conditions are also recommended. Grade 3 routes involve distances of up to 11km in length, up to 360m height gain and are up to 5½ hours long.

Responsible walking

Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.

Always use gates and stiles where available. If a gate is closed, close it after entering. If it is open, leave it open. If you cannot open a closed gate to enter, go over at its hinge with care. Take care not to damage any gates, stiles or fences.

When parking, be considerate not to block any gates, farm-access lanes or forest entrances as local residents, farm machinery and emergency services may need access at all times.

Note that landowners generally do not approve of dogs being brought onto their property, and this includes their land on the open hillside. If you must take your dog, ask the landowner’s permission: this especially applies to Routes 21 and 29. This, of course, doesn’t apply to public roads or public parks. If you need to bring your dog on upland trails other than Routes 21 and 29, keep it on a leash. Note also it will not be practical to bring your dog on Route 6 (Ireland’s Eye).

Leave No Trace (www.leavenotraceireland.org) is an outdoor ethics programme designed to promote and inspire responsible outdoor recreation through education, research and partnerships. Put its ethics into practice, even if there is no one about to see you do it.

• Take out all litter including biodegradable materials, such as apples cores, orange peel and food scraps.

• Do not disturb structures and artifacts such as old walls and hilltop cairns, and treat another’s property as your own.

• Leave all natural wildlife habitats as they are, such as fallen trees and wildflowers.

• Minimise the effect of fire as it could lead to uncontrolled wildfires and charred park benches.

• Stick to established trails to prevent upland and trail erosion and never feed farm animals or wildlife.

Equipment for you and for your children

It is recommended to carry waterproofs/windproofs (jacket and over-trousers) and a basic first-aid kit for all routes in this book. The first-aid kit would consist of items such as plasters, sterile wipes, small bandages and sterile water pods. Two-season hiking boots with good ankle support, a fleece top, walking trousers, gloves, socks, hat, food and drink are also recommended for all coastal, hill and mountain routes in this book. You may also wish to include some sun cream and midge repellent in the summer, especially for hill and mountain routes.

A few tips to bear in mind when taking children especially on Grade 2 or 3 routes:

• Bring sufficient warm clothes and waterproofs, and a spare fleece for kids: children have a smaller surface area for their body size and heat up or cool down quicker than adults. A group shelter is also great for kids to get into, especially on windy days in exposed areas on the hill or coast.

• Bring extra fluids: children have higher fluid requirements per kilo of body weight compared to adults. As a simple rule of thumb, if you need 500ml of fluid for yourself, then you need to bring a similar amount of fluid for each child.

• Bring extra snacks: these are a useful distraction especially for young children when a little encouragement is required. Children tend to eat little and often rather than having one large meal. Healthier foods and drinks such as sandwiches, fresh fruit, cereal bars and no-added-sugar squashes are recommended. The occasional treat such as some sweets, a chocolate bar or hot chocolate in a flask might not do any harm.

• Make it fun: