| Within the pale
Malcolm Rogers looks at what’s on offer just beyond Dublin’s city limits.
Dublin is the number one destination for visitors to Ireland but you
don’t have to confine yourself to the city centre. A necklace of
destinations lies just beyond the city limits gardens, castles, woodland
and parks, usually with a café or restaurant nearby to revitalise
your suburban sojourn.
Dalkey’s fine buildings and bracing sea views have been immortalised
by the likes of Joyce, Shaw and Myles na gCopaleen. One of the town’s
many castles is now home to a Heritage Centre the perfect place to contemplate
the area’s convoluted history, shaped by all the usual suspects:
Celts, Vikings, Normans etc, right back to 4500 BC.
The Dublin Tourism website notes some 11 restaurants, two cafés,
a wine shop, six pubs and three chemists in Dalkey. It’s somewhat
surprising that pharmacists are included but when you think about it,
a barman is just a chemist with a limited inventory. You can dispense
with the guide book however and just head for The Guinea Pig, an essential
destination for the gourmets and gluttons of Dalkey for the last 50 years,
where the emphasis is steadfastly on baronial portions of fresh fish,
beef and lamb.
Howth Head’s highest point is Slievemartin and the inspirational
Cromlech Of Howth by Samuel Ferguson should accompany your stroll to the
summit. The ancient association with Diarmuid and Grainne may also stir
your lyrical side.
Having drunk profoundly from the well of culture, recover with lunch at the
Deep Restaurant, 12 West Pier Howth, (tel: 01 806 3921). Voluptuous fishy
portions served with judicious and imaginative touches await you. Time
your visit for around 4pm and you’ll see the famous local seals
being fed in the harbour. The whole quay is devoted to fishmongers and
when they’ve finished monging the fish the leftovers are tossed
to the fattest, most pampered seals in Ireland Celebrity Big Blubber indeed.
Malahide Castle, tinkered with for the last 800 years, is hard by the
Fry Model Railway, installed in the Corn Store. This is the nation’s
largest model railway layout, featuring miniature CIE and Iarnrod Eireann
trains.
If you’re more into flowers that boys’ toys, head for the
Talbot Botanic Gardens. The Talbots were the big Anglo-Irish shout round
here and their arboretum, conservatory and orchard are home to some 5,000
species.
From gardens to gastronomy and Bon Apetit, 9 St. James Terrace, Malahide
(tel 01 845 0314) is something of an institution with day-tripping Dubliners.
Even the fish, freshly plucked from the Irish Sea, seem keen to please.
“I’m just a sole whose intentions are good,” their piscine
motto.
Bull Wall was begun by Captain Bligh, master of the Bounty. Bull Island
was formed as sand was deposited against the Bligh bulwark. Today it’s
a haven for birdlife and, oddly enough, orchids.
For a pizza feast Dublin has some truly terrible places but Il Fornaio
in Raheny is not one of them pasta and bruschetta here satisfies the most
exacting gastronaut. Tel 01 832 0277
To the west lies the Wicklow Way which threads its way from Dublin’s
suburbs through Glendalough and wild Glenmalure. It eventually brings
you to Ireland’s highest pub, Johnny Fox’s in Glencullen village
(tel 01 2955647). It’s touristy but the craic, food and entertainment
guarantee a jolly end to the day.
Poulaphouca Reservoir is, to paraphrase slightly, just one dam thing
after another. The Liffey tumbles 150 feet into Puck’s Hole (really)
and Dublin’s water supply looks rather charming. You can junk the
jalopy and walk to beautiful Hollywood Glen or just have a brisk drive
round the perimeter. For reward to collect your, ahem, just desserts head
for Rathsallagh House, Dunlavin (tel 0 45 403112)
Specialising in seafood, game-in-season and the odd Mediterranean adventure,
its puddings are dedicated to those who have a flexible take on diets.
Maynooth’s museum celebrates the amazing Nicholas Callan, an 18th
century priest and professor of natural philosophy at St. Patrick’s.
Callan invented the wonderfully named ‘self-exciting dynamo’.
Something of a showman, the priest tested his devices by electrocuting
local poultry. Or poultry in motion as he doubtless put it.
But Kildare’s main contribution to cuisine is not Kildare Fried Chicken
it’s Richard Corrigan’s restaurant, The Mill, at Lyons Village
(tel 01 6303500). The impressive setting, superb cuisine and first-class
service make up an unbeatable hat-trick, guaranteed to produce some Harry-met-Sally
culinary moments.
Fitzgerald’s pub in Avoca village was made famous by Ballykissangel,
turning it into a top telly-tourist destination overnight. From here you
can wander down the Vale to the oldest hotel in Ireland, the Woodenbridge,
licensed in 1608 as a coaching inn on the old Dublin-Wexford highway.
Its new culinary adjunct Il Ruscello in the adjoining Woodenbridge Lodge
specialises in local produce with added Italian zest. Prices include the
terrific view and you don’t get better than The Meeting of the Waters,
namely the River Aughrim feeding into the River Avoca.
Spas and wellness centres have sprung up in every province in Ireland.
However the four-star Brook Lodge and Wells Spa in Macreddin Village,
Wicklow (tel 0 402 36444) can boast one unique aspect: It is Ireland’s
only certified organic restaurant. Local produce guaranteed from farm
to fork in only a few hundred paces.
This year is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Bram Stoker, so it
seems churlish not to don our capes and remember that blood’s thicker
than water and far tastier. At the Bram Stoker Dracula Experience, Clontarf
Road (tel 01 805 7824) you’ll learn how a decent, Dublin civil servant
managed to turn an obscure historical figure, Vlad the Impaler, into the
world’s favourite fiend.
The museum gives you the lowdown on the story including the information
that it was after a dish of seafood in Whitby that Bram Stoker dreamt
up the plot for Dracula. You might try the tactic yourself at The Picasso
on Vernon Avenue, a reliable local Italian specialising in, ahem, hardcore
prawn. In honour of Dracula you might even order a de-coffinated cappuccino.
Olé! |
