On a grey but dry morning, eighteen of us met at 10.30 at the gate of Holy Cross College on Clonliffe Road. A short walk through the college grounds brought us to the river bank. We came out on to Drumcondra Road, through the Archbishop’s palace grounds, before rejoining the river at Drumcondra bridge and entering Griffith Park.
Exiting the park at Dean Swift bridge, we continued along the river and St Mobhi Drive. Having looked at the river flowing by the Botanic Gardens Rose garden, we left it for a 10 minute walk up the Old Finglas Road, before rejoining it at Addison Park housing estate and entering the secluded, quiet oasis of Violet Hill Park.
Having crossed the busy Finglas Road, we entered Tolka Valley Park. We stopped at a small café on the Ballyboggan Road for a welcome coffee-lunch break. At this point, a couple of walkers decided to head back to town from the nearby Broombridge Luas stop.
By then the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the final stretch of the walk took us to Ashtown train station through Tolka Valley Park. Six hardy participants walked back to Drumcondra on the Royal Canal towpath, noting in passing the plaque commemorating Sir William Rowan Hamilton’s discovery of the quaternion multiplication, as he walked from Trinity to Dunsink observatory. A nice Trinity note to end a lovely day.
From Clonliffe Road to Ashtown we covered 9.5km. The full circle was 14.5km. See photos in Gallery.