The August bank holiday weekend, a perfect opportunity don my well-worn boots and a slick of factor 50, and head out to enjoy some sea views in and around Malahide, County Dublin.
This walk begins at Malahide railway station. This village offers a wealth of walking opportunities, and is easily accessible by train or bus. Today I’m going to show off one particular route that offers seaside promenading followed by some truly splendid views over the Estuary as you ascend into Robswall Park. Walking through Malahide in August, you are treated to a village in bloom:
Malahide village resplendent in summer flowers
This walk takes you through Malahide and along the path following the Coast Road east for an easy and fairly flat 2kms, with lovely views of the Estuary and options to take the sandier route along the beach rather than the roadside paths if you’d like.
You pass a re-modelled Martello tower known as Hick’s Tower before making a right-hand turn into The Crescent, Robswall, shown above where the black line ends. You turn just before a large grassy field that more often than not has two beautiful highland cows visible, grazing.
Following the road past the cows and with the Robswall apartments to your right, you will eventually reach the entrance to Robswall Park and the Hillside Hike:
As well as offering stunning views over the Estuary, this park was apparently the site of the Neolithic or early Bronze-age original settlement of Malahide. You will have seen Robswall Castle ahead of you before you turned into the estate… this is a medieval castle that was at the entrance to the harbour and once housed Cistercian monks. This area is steeped in history.
Entering Robswall Park gives the opportunity for a nice circular walk around the Hillside Hike, with splendid views over the Estuary, which are especially lovely on a sunny day. Following my directions shown below, you eventually reach an alleyway that runs parallel to the newer Robswall apartments and brings you through another brand new housing estate called Jameson Orchard.
Making your way through this estate, and past the old house that presumably previously owned all of this land, eventually you find yourself on Seamount Road. You should follow this right to its end, where it meets a road called The Hill.
Turn right onto The Hill and go, errr… up the slight hill for a short while before taking the second left onto The Bawn and following it until you reach the junction with Back Road – here you turn left. Back Road is quite a busy road with fast-moving cars, but fortunately very shortly you will meet a right turn into a carpark for the Malahide Castle estate. If you go into this car park, there is a great opportunity to turn left and follow a peaceful wooded path that runs parallel to the road. You should follow this path all the way until it meets the next car entrance to Malahide Castle.
[Just as a side-note. There is an opportunity here to re-join Back Road and walk a little way along it until you reach a lovely garden centre called The Garden House, which has scones, great coffee…. oh, and one or two plants.]
However, let’s assume you have decided against scones (why?!) and will head into the Castle estate instead. As shown on the map above, you should follow the driveway into the grounds and towards the castle itself, where there is an opportunity to visit the Walled Garden, the Avoca shop, and the Avoca cafe (for a second scone?).
After this, the route back to Malahide Station is really simple – you just follow the black signs for the village that are helpfully dotted around the castle estate. A leisurely 10 minute stroll will take you back to where you started. I hope you enjoyed it!
Total distance: around 7km (give or take: I really need to get a GPS). Time: I’m afraid I was not counting… too much time eating scones.
Ireland, without a car 