The other day I had the chance to do a beautiful hike on Howth Head. I had been to Howth village several times before and walked around the cute town and harbor but hadn’t yet had a chance to hike up onto the cliff. Howth Head is a peninsula that juts out into the sea and offers spectacular views. I joined a few other American women and, along with my buddy Rafi on my back, we headed up the hill.

As we ascended from Howth village, I could see the Howth harbor and the little island called Ireland’s Eye, which is a bird sanctuary and site of an early Christian monastery.

We even passed the childhood home of William Butler Yeats! (I love how small the door is!)

We walked along the cliffs, with the sea to our left and grass and heather and wildflower covered fields to our right. They say on a clear day you can even see across to Wales from up here, but we didn’t this time. After awhile, the Bailey Lighthouse, which was the last of Ireland’s lighthouses to become automated, came into view. It has helped boats navigate into Dublin Harbor for hundreds of years.

There are several lengths of hiking to do (3, 5, or 8 miles) and we did the shortest this time, so we didn’t make it to the part of the peninsula where you can view all of Dublin Bay. If we had continued looping around past the lighthouse, we would have had a view of the bay and Dublin city in the distance, but the part we did was quite beautiful as it was! Plus with an extra 30 pounds on my back, I was glad to do the shorter one 🙂

I was really glad I did the hike though! I was super tired that morning and feeling lazy and thought about not going along, but it definitely energized me and gave me a chance to get out in nature and get some fresh sea air! We finished up back in Howth village with a lunch of warm soup and Irish brown bread — delicious!