Journey Mama: Ireland Day 2

Day 2 we headed to a gorgeous old fisherman village by the sea called Howth (hoe-th). First we headed to Howth Head to hike the trail that travels all around the cliffs above the sea to the lighthouse.

These patches of yellow flowers are called Gorse. Years ago these flowers were very important to the Irish. They were used to thatch roofs, fuel for cooking, and ground up for animal feed. I thought they were beautiful spread out all over fields, they have the smell of coconut. If you go in late spring you will see them growing along side lavender…I’m sorry I missed the lavender.

So we got a little adventurous and I REALLY was dying to get down to the water…we found a small beach where we could hear the sea lions calling pretty loud. So we did very carefully and I might add painfully (my knees were killing me) got down to the bottom of the cliffs to the beach area. The photo below is looking up the cliff we crawled down on…I was not in shape to do this…I haven’t been hiking at all lately…so needless to say I was wondering how I was going back up!

We must have made quite a racket coming down the mountain because they were distant black bobs in the water when we got to the beach. This beach area made me think of Larabee beach in Washington State. I loved that beach!

This photo you can see parts of the trail and a hiker at the edge :)

This hike did not loop around so we hiked back the way we came and headed to the harbour for a hot lunch and some hot irish tea…it was COLD!

Maud’s boasted they have the best homemade soup in Howth, so I tried the Spicy Lentil Soup and Irish Soda bread. It did not disappoint!!!

Howth is especially known for their delicious Fish and Chips!!! I highly recommend it…I’m not a seafood person and I thought is was pretty incredible. After lunch we headed to the harbour to walk the piers and visit the village.