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Displaying items by tag: Excursion trips

Operator Dublin Bay Cruises excursion vessel St. Bridget has completed an annual overhaul at Howth Boatyard and returned to the capital’s Grand Canal Dock this morning in preparation for the forthcoming season, writes Jehan Ashmore.

St. Bridget was observed off the Baily Lighthouse, on the Howth Peninsula, where the feature is one of many prominent coastal landmarks that line the beautiful expanse of Dublin Bay. The operator of boat trips and cruises is to resume service on the day preceding St. Patricks Day which this year falls on a Sunday.

In addition to made-made structures, there are wonderful opportunities to take in the marine life-life based on seven excursions, with embarkation available from Dublin City Centre, Dun Laoghaire Harbour and Howth Harbour. There are also tours from Howth around Ireland’s Eye, and from Dun Laoghaire circling Dalkey Island and into Killiney Bay along with the backdrop of the Wicklow mountains.

In the meantime, this morning the St. Bridget arrived to Dublin Port which involved the busy scene of shipping activity, before the 26m vessel reached the Tom Clarke (East Link) Toll-Bridge. At that stage, the bridge's opening-span of 45m was raised to enable the vessel to transit through into the Dublin ‘Docklands’ stretch of the River Liffey.

No sooner had St. Bridget passed under the bridge, the vessel turned into the nearby loch gate (Ringsend Gut) of the Grand Canal Dock basin on the south side of the city. This is where the vessel routinely occupies a berth during the winter months, however it won’t be long before its’ role will see excursionists embark in eagerness to take in the wonderful sights of the capital’s distinctive horse-shoe shaped bay.

Published in Dublin Bay

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.