Paging Bee*!

It''s not really hiking, but when I wanted to get that feeling without leaving Dublin I walked along the Dodder.  There were some truely amazing areas that felt like I was out of the city.  I caught it near Donnybrook and abouit half a mile from there it gets really green and lovely.

BUMP! Hoping bee sees this...

brazen_irish_hussy thanks for the recommendation! Thing is, we don''t live in Dublin so driving into the city to walk along a riverbank is probably not very practical! We can easily drive to the mountains around though, should only take an hour or so and it''d be worth it for a good long hike in the fresh air Next year though, when I have to live in Dublin, I''ll definitely be checking the your route out!

Hi Delster I didn''t know you were going to be living in Dublin next year-we''ll have to meet up for a beer. I normally go walking in the Rathfarnham mountains as they''re near to my house and they''re beautiful! If you want to try there, go up to the M50 and go southbound and come off at the Firhouse/Knocklyon exit (it''s the one just after the Tallaght exit). When you come off that go straight and you''ll come to a roundabout and go take the 2nd exit off. Then you come to another roundabout and you take the 3rd exit off that. Keep going straight and you come to a T-junction and take a right. You''re just on the foot of the mountains there and just keep driving straight. You go over two narrow bridges and eventually you come to another road just in front of a car park. Take a left there and keep heading up the mountains for about another 5 minutes from there and you''ll come to a car park on your left hand side. (it''s not an official car park as such but everyone parks there). That''s my all time favourite place to go for a walk. It''s amazing and so beautiful and scenic up there and you usually don''t bump into anyone at all while you''re there.

Have you been to Glendalough? They have about 7 different walks and they''re all beautiful although maybe not quite as scenic as the mountains. There are many forests and woods on the way up to the previous mountain walk also but I find that they can be quite busy with people so I can''t let Amber off the lead much.

There are another couple of mountain walks that we''ve done but I''ll have to check with D for the directions. I''ll let you know later today.


Brazen-I live just down the road from the dodder. That''s where we take Amber for her normal everyday walks. The amount of kingfishers along there is crazy-we always see them!

Yayyy, thanks bee!

Brilliant directions, gonna drag BF up there now one of the weekends soon. Actually, it''s more like BF dragging me up there, I''m the lazy one We are planning a trip to Glendalough soon (BF has never been!), and the Cooley mountains are also within easy reach, and there are bazillions of woodland and river walks within a half hour''s drive or less of home. BF misses the mountain scenery though so I wanted to find him some options up my end of the country!

I''d definitely be on for a few schoops next year  I have to do my first year in Dublin, them''s are the rules. After that, who knows. Big decisions will needs making. At the moment I can work anywhere once I have my laptop and whichever books I need. The college''s library subscriptions are fantastic and I can access just about any report or journal I want through their website using my college log-in. It''s brilliant. When I was an undergrad we had to physically go in to the library to do any research, now I can do it all from home!

BTW, completely unrelated, but remember that date BF and I are sentimental about? Next March? Well my cousin has only gone and booked her wedding for the weekend after. Waaaah! Of course she had absolutely no way of knowing and it''s not like we could have arranged anything in just six months anyways. Still, it stung a wee bit when I first heard  Not to worry though, it''ll be a Sunday in 2010 so we can make it an all-weekend job, right?

awwww no! Your cousin booked that date Noooo-that''s so disappointing! You can definitely have an all weekend affair in 2010. Have the wedding on the Saturday and a huge party on the Sunday! It''ll give you more time to plan also-if I hadn''t gotten veterinary, I would have seriously considered a career as a wedding planner-I''m in my element booking everything

That walk really is my favourite. I also posted a photo a little while ago from Killiney Hill. That''s a really nice walk too but it doesn''t take very long. I love Glendalough-they do a bat tour thing in either September/October at night-D and I have done it the past two years and you basically walk around and look at all the bats-it''s really cool. We took Amber last year but not sure if she saw a bat

If you go out to the Canals at Prosperous also-they have some fab walks around there or there are some really nice walks around Rathcoole/Saggart-and then you can go to Avoca for lunch

Definitely have to meet for a few scoops. We can do a bit of wedding planning!

ooh just remembered one of my other favourite walks-up around the Hellfire club. I love walking up to it and then if you continue walking past it, you can walk around the whole mountain. It''s so beautiful around there too. Basically if you follow the directions I gave you up to taking the 3rd exit off the roundabout. After coming off the roundabout, take the next right (it''s up about half a mile) and head up that mountain instead. You''ll eventually come to it on your right hand side after driving straight up for about 20 minutes.

I might just hire you if you do that - will you take payment in cocktails?

That bat tour sounds hilarious, I''d love to do that. Don''t know if BF will be up for it though. I tried to persuade him to try falconry once and it was a definite no-go!

What''s the Hellfire Club?

Yep payment in cocktails, rose wine, corona, all is good

The bat thing was brilliant. Really really good-I definitely want to do it again this year, if I can drag D there again.

I''ll try and find a link about the hellfire club.

Here''s one here

The hellfire club is a lovely area.  After we had a few on halloween, a few of us went down to wander around.  I don''t know about it in it''s hayday, but it certainly lived up to its name that night.

I feel silly telling Irish people where to go in Ireland, but it is the only place outside of Colorado I have lived and no one needs advice for it.  So I am pestering you with my helpfulness

There was a huge party at it a few weeks ago also. I live down the road from it and leaflets were posted in all of our doors and the amount of cars going past was crazy-I''d say it was some night.