Day 18 Wexford Town to Howth via Wicklow Mountains

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A very varied and sensationally enjoyable day. Halfway between Avoca and Rathdrum we came across “The Meeting”, so called because of the meeting of two clear, free flowing rivers coming from the Wicklow Mountains through lush countryside that had us wanting to stay, look and listen for more time than what we did.

Winding our way further up the mountains we came across Glendalough and many, many cyclists. It was a long weekend in Ireland, so with the sun out, the Irish were out. However, these cyclists were participating in the 110 and 140km challenge through the mountains. There was no shouting from slow moving vehicles at the cyclists, no throwing of material; just slow and courtesy. We stopped and took photos of a few and made comments. Many stopped to chat, thankful for an excuse to rest up for a little. The up slopes (seemed all up slopes to us) also had the cyclists going into a fairly strong wind but from their comments they were thankful it wasn’t raining and that they needed vitamin D.

Sadly, we moved on, heading out of the mountains to the outskirts of Dublin, to make our way to Howth. It took us a fair while as the road numbered R105 we could not find so ended up taking ‘other’ roads which eventually had us in this awesome little port village of Howth situated at the foot of a bulbous Howth peninsula on the northern fringes of Dublin Bay making it ideal as a major fishing centre and yachting harbour. On the way in Jane made comment that it looked like many ‘well-heeled’ folk live around or have holiday homes in the area. From speaking to locals, that is the case. It has many sights to see and visit so we’ll do what we can in the next few days.

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