padodes on Ben of Howth

I love my quartzite, and nowhere more than on the Ben of Howth in Dublin where it has fused with iron and taken on all the warmer hues: pink to red, golden yellow to rusty brown. It’s even more attractive than the rose-tinted quartzite of Bray Head or the whitish variety of the Great and Little Sugar Loaf in Wicklow. It’s a good rock to walk on, too, since it yields a thin soil that doesn’t support much growth. It hasn’t got the messy habit of clothing itself in deep bog like granite, or the nasty one of turning to soap in wet weather like schist. It’s the kind of rock you can stride on with jaunty confidence.

There are really two bens on the Howth peninsula. The slightly lower one, Shielmartin, lies to the west and rises above the raised beach at Sutton that now links what was once an island to the mainland. The higher one, the Ben of Howth proper, with its trig pillar and ubiquitous mast, lies to the east and is just the cockiest of several surrounding hummocks. At this end, the pockmarks of old quarries are a reminder of how prized Howth rock has been in the past as a decorative stone for building. Between the two bens, Howth Golf Club has managed to turn what was once rough lowland into manicured greens (see photo). Not being a golfer, I’m never sure whether to consider this a stroke of ingenuity (pardon the pun) or just an intrusive incongruity.

It’s easy to turn a ramble across the bens of Howth into a fine circular excursion by linking it with a stretch of the cliff walk between Howth and Sutton. Guidebooks are full of indications in that direction. All along the way, the views are exceptional. My own snapshot, taken from the vantage point of Shielmartin, looks across to Howth Harbour and Ireland’s Eye (itself mainly of quartzite, too), with Howth Castle tucked away just to the left of the trees. The great white veil in the distance marks the approach of a hailstorm that would soon wrap itself around me.

P.S. Yes, with a film of frost, or mud, or lichen, quartzite can become slippery. Like any good wine, it, too, needs to be savoured with care. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/1046/comment/4390/

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EASTWARD HOWTH

I should just add to Simon 3’s and other contributors’ enthusiasm for Howth.
If you don’t know it, it is a complete surprise. If it is a challenge you are looking for, you will not find it here; but if you want a gentle saunter along a fabulous jagged coastline, do it now – well not now, in the blinding rain …..
Get lucky and you will see dolphins. Get even luckier and you can climb down into one of its hidden coves and Zzzzzzzzz in the sun.
That would be the bright, round, yellow thing historians tell us about.
On the ascent out of the city world below, there is a pub and on the road home, you can buy fish straight out of the sea.
There are moments you will barely know you are part of the mainland, let alone 10 mins out of Dub.
Magical, unexpected - and compulsory. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/1046/comment/14826/

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Here's to Howth!

Having made my first proper visit there this afternoon and doing the Purple "Bog of Frogs" waymarked route (anti-clockwise with the detour to the Ben early in the walk), I found myself marvelling at the number of foreign tourists in all too clean footwear cursing the muddy path as I returned via the "Summit" and Nose of Howth. This really is a fantastic public amenity that only requires a small bit of TLC in places to be brilliant and practically a must do for all.

Given the footfall, there are a small number of muddy sections that need a tidy up, a section along the housing estate rather blighted by dumping in ditches and small sections of the coves that are littered, but I suspect there must be a few tidy towns people doing a bit here and there and hopefully that continues. I did my wee bit and gathered a few plastic bottles on my way around, though there were many pristine sections.

I was sure I could see as far as Wicklow lighthouse, on a dull day that looked like a total write-off from my east Kildare base. Not so. The views were splendid and it seemed easy to identify tops such as Carrickgollogan, Bray Head, Little Sugar Loaf and Great Sugar Loaf.

A place to appreciate! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/1046/comment/19813/

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Benny Hill!

Updated:Climbed Ben of howth with my 2 kids and wife.I started from the quarry on Windgate rd on a Windy Sunday afternoon.Views on top were very good considering misty conditions.Stay was short due the blustery wind.A very easy tick off the list. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/1046/comment/6512/

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csd on Ben of Howth

Arguably one of the easiest bags for Dublin-based folk, it's remarkable that Ben of Howth has escaped comment for this long! This is one that stretches the "mountain" in MountainViews to the limit. Anyway, access is easy from Windgate Road, there's a laneway all the way to the top from the quarry entrance. Views are great in all directions; as a southsider it gives a perspective on the city that I'm not used to. There are no less than three radio installations dotting the general summit area, but c'mon, you weren't really expecting wilderness on Howth, were you? Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/1046/comment/4214/

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