A trip to Lambay Island, about 3 - 4km off the East coast of Ireland, had been on the cards for a while but due to one reason or another I had never gotten round to it.
On Sunday the 23rd January 2011, all the pieces fell into place: we had the sea kayaks already loaded on the van, the weather forecast was calm and clear with minimal swell and we had two locals, Paddy and John McGovern to guide us!
To us River Rats, whose furthest excursion offshore has been to either Dalkey Island or Irelands Eye, this seemed truly epic! We had enough spare bits and pieces to cover any mishap we could expect but if something did go wrong, there was no swimming 10 metres to the shoreline and walking back to the van for help.
“I did say there was minor swell”
We departed from the harbour in Rush and made surprisingly quick time crossing the few kms to the island. There was a trawler close to the shore attracting A LOT of birds and as we got closer to the island we could start to pick out it’s features: windmill, jet-black cattle, sheep, hillocks, a small cluster of buildings and what looked like a large walled garden.
We were aware the locals didn’t take kindly to strangers, so we found a sheltered cove to pull in and take a quick rest and a bite of lunch by the waterline. Thankfully the day remained calm and clear and we got a great view of the North Dublin coastline to the West and the Mourne Mountains to the North.
We didn’t have time to do a full lap of the island, so we headed back up the west coast and made the crossing back to the mainland.
We met a couple of nosey seals who popped up every now and again trailing us back to the harbour in Rush.
All in all a great day and will definitely be back again.
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