The magic of Howth

Wet. That was the first word that lept to mind when I peeked out of the Howth DART station and out into what was the furthest I’d been outside Dublin in months. Though it was only drizzling for the moment, the sky seemed about ready to open up at any moment.

Corey and I had left Dublin in very different moods that morning – her excited about this magical place called Howth, with all of its ruins and hills and trees and happiness, and me craving some sort of caffeine. Once the train started moving, I had some coffee and we started seeing the ocean out the windows, however, I cheered up considerably. By the time we got to Howth proper, I was definitely looking forward to traipsing around some castle grounds.

Howth Castle was, in fact, the reason we decided to come to Howth in the first place – due to Dublin’s disappointing lack of any really satisfying ruins, Corey had specially requested we find somewhere with crumbling stones, a structurally compromised old building of some sort, preferably a castle, and maybe some ivy.

St. Mary's...I guess?

The first building we arrived at was a church that, disappointingly, was perfectly structurally sound, but absolutely beautiful, hence why I have about 50 pictures of the door frame on my camera. It’s quite a small church, but impressive nevertheless, and with plenty of ivy and a delightful garden along the side.

Howth Castle in the rain

The castle is a short walk beyond the church. Though wasn’t open to the public (it never is – it’s actually still the residence of the Earl of Howth and the Gaisford St. Lawrence family as well as a cooking school), the grounds are wander-able, and there are enough opportunities to stare at almost-crumbling walls to make any history buff happy. Also, the pirate queen Grainne Ni Mhaille (Grace O’Malley) visited here and reportedly kidnapped the 8th Baron of Howth’s oldest son in revenge for a slight.

We did leave the castle and explore the grounds a little bit, including the golf course nearby. Sadly, about this time, the clouds opened and rain came pouring down. We put up our umbrellas and agreed, teeth chattering, that maybe a trip to the pub by the train station for some soup and tea was in order.

The friendliest cat in the entire world

The pub was called The Bloody Stream, and was only one of the creatively-named pubs we would see that day (the other, on the other side of the peninsula, was called The Cock Tavern). Clearly full of tourists, but then again, we were tourists, so we both sucked it up and ordered what turned out to be some very suspicious-looking seafood chowder. By the time we finished and said goodbye to the world’s friendliest cat on the way out, the rain had stopped and we decided to try and find the Abbey ruins.

Yay for ruins!

St. Mary’s Church, also known as Howth Abbey, was first founded in 1042. Apparently the earliest church on this site was built around the same time as Christ Church and by the same king, but St. Mary’s, the church presently semi-standing on the grounds, was built in the 1300s and modified heavily over the next 200 years.

Like the best abbeys (and by best, I mean best for exploring), it’s surrounded by a graveyard with mismatched stones and monuments all scattered around the very bumpy hillside. Definitely an excellent place to poke around – if you want to go inside the abbey, though, you have to contact the caretaker who lives across the street for the key.

This one's Corey's...

We took a short walk around the beautifully sunny harbour, which is definitely worth doing—unless the wind is as bad as it was for us. We didn’t last long up on the pier walk, but it was beautiful nonetheless and there was much talk about Howth being magic (just like their slogan – visit www.howthismagic.com for proof).

Corey and I also climbed the MASSIVE HILL at the top of which is the Vintage Radio Museum known as Ye Olde Hurdy-Gurdy. Though we didn’t feel like paying the steep admissions fee, it was worth the climb just for the view of the harbour and the abbey from above.

Then, since the sun was out again, we decided to head back to the castle and see if we could get some better pictures of the castle. We did, thankfully, and then went exploring the grounds again.

After staggering around the golf course for far too long and taking pictures of cows (not strictly necessary, but as a city girl I get distinctly excited whenever I see real live farm animals), we finally stumbled on the wild Howth Castle rhododendron gardens.

Corey's again! See what I MEAN?

These really were magical, and the pictures are not doing them justice but at all – you really have to be there in real life to get how gorgeous this place is. It’s exactly the type of place I would set A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with flower petals literally carpeting the ground in shady little areas that could easily be some sort of fairy bower. And the garden wasn’t even in full bloom, as it was only April – I can’t imagine how amazing this place would be right around now.

After the gardens, we decided to forage for some fish and chips – a decent idea, considering we were at the seaside. Due to the lack of signage anywhere, we ended up spending a lot of time wandering the streets and crying plaintively, “We need fish in a box!” before finally stumbling on Beshoff Bros, a chain fish place that happily obliged our wishes.

A short train ride and we were home again, still damp from the morning showers but refreshed by the day as a whole. Though we mocked Howth out mercilessly for their silly slogan, I have to admit, there really is something special about Howth.