Wednesday 1 March 2017

Short but refreshing walk in Dalkey - Killiney Hill

It's New Year! We were all eating, drinking, and partying a lot during Christmas... too much maybe? And then we all made very hard to accomplish new year resolutions, didn't we?

...mmmm, let me see: I am going to eat healthier this year, I'll quit smoking, I'll quit chocolate!, will go running every morning no matter the weather (????), we will not waste our weekends at home watching TV, we will enjoy our family time, we will go for nice Sunday morning walks and enjoy nature together!!!!


Oh! The joys of the new year resolutions.... what would January/February be without them??? meaningless!!!! All the excitement  we put on those resolutions during the first weeks of the year, and then? sometimes we go ahead and sometimes we just drop some on our way to summer.

Well, 2017 has not been special: we made new year resolutions as a family, and the most important one for me is to enjoy our time together as a family with little walks during the weekend... whenever possible!

To my utmost satisfaction (does this sound as important as I want to make it??), we started with our little but amazing Sunday walks early this month (super! fantastic! astonishing! well done!). Aaaaaand.... where did we go?

To KILLINEY HILL (a classic - couldn't be any other walk)

The Killiney Hill walk is a lovely short walk that can be done at any age, during any season of the year. It has many advantages compared to other popular walks in or around Dublin the main one, for me, being the fact that you can get there by DART: no need to drive. Just hop on the DART and stop at the Dalkey station - after a not-so-long walk across the village, you'll be there 



I would recommend you to access the park at the entrance right after the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel (see picture): it's the easiest way to access the path to reach the top of the hill:



Difficult to miss this entrance, as it is usually very crowded: there is a little cafe very popular amongst dog owners who also bring their pets for a little morning walk during weekends. 



From the cafe, just just need to follow the path... or the people :-) Just go up! You can use the standard path which will take you to the top in approx 15 minutes... 



or if you want to give the walk that extra dose of excitement, you can find a shortcut and climb through "rough nature" (after, of course a little meditation by the Dedalus statue - this is an important step not to be missed!)




Lovely feeling, when the kids reach the Obelisk! I know it's simple, but still considered and achievement!




The views from the top are just perfect, not only when the sun is shining, but also during those cloudy days, you'll be amazed by what you see in any direction you choose to look







Regarding the way back, we always refuse to take the paved path and return to the car going down from the hill from the opposite side of the Obelisk, which is more like a mountain walk. It starts here:



Using this alternative path, the kids have the opportunity to climb trees, jump from rock to rock...even explore "caves":








Back to the car in a little over an hour, after a HUGE adventure, so close to Dublin that we always question ourselves why we do not do it more often.... Perfect day for our first New Year Resolution Walk! 

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