Many of our small travels in Ireland start from studying a map. We simply look around for interesting places and do the research, but many times you can’t find much information about random villages. It was the case with Skerries village – quiet seaside little town stone throw away from Dublin.
Skerries village definitely isn’t mind-blowing but interesting enough to spend nice sunny afternoon. There is lots of places in Ireland which looks amazing when the sun is out and blue skies gives fantastic backdrop to dramatic landscape. Of course there are spots where foggy and rainy weather gives this mysterious sheath, at this case Skerries village count into the first group.
Skerries Mills – Skerries Village
We started our visit in Skerries mills, really interesting with amazing history. If you don’t want to buy tickets you can see the actual mills from the distance enter little cozy café for a cup of warm liquid or buys some eggs, jams or pork meat on a mini market which take place over the weekend. Sightseeing with a tour cost 8 euros per adult and we do recommend doing it. We were lucky and it was only 2 of us for the tour. You can have a tour with one of the guides or a manager and the owner of the property which showed us around. It was fun as he was a great craic as you would say in Ireland.
Wooden water wheel is 900 years old and it is still working fine! You have 2 wind mills one is 700 years old and the other the young one just 300 years old. We were told Skerries mills are probably the only one in the world where you cultivate the field, grind the grain to produce flour and bake the bread in very own bakery normally it would all be done by separate people. In here it was the case due to poor water supply one of the worst on the Island. First mentions of the estate come from twelve century when it was owned by nearby monastery.
Skerries Islands – Skerries Village
There are also Skerries Islands unfortunately camera batteries died and we had to continue with phone photos. On St Patrick’s island you can find ruins of the initial monastery and it is believed St Patrick arrived there and started his Christianization of Ireland. On Rockabill Island you can find lighthouse and on Shenick Island Martello tower which you can find all over Irish seaside built by British in Napoleon times.
Just by the wharf there is a tiny chalet selling homemade ice cream it was recommended by the mill manager as best ever and queue suggested he was right. We didn’t try it as we were on low sugar diet at this time but we will definitely be back soon to give it a go.
Loughshinny
After Skerries we stopped at tiny Loughshinny where small beach is and it was completely empty at the time. In front of the beach we saw red ‘spy’ house! We do not know who lives there or what it is about but definitely some mental issues involved… House is all painted in Red with enormous amount of clutter all around the house, garden and the fence. You have plenty of hand written warnings like ‘CCTV in Operation’. We couldn’t see from the distance but when we were driving by we saw a man wearing full camouflage dessert hat and sunglasses seating in his ‘base’. Totally weird and crazy place, we didn’t take any photo as we were afraid of a gunshot but if you know anything about it give us a shout.
Malahide
The last stop on the way home was Malahide which is a great place for a weekend day trip. Little coastal town is quite charming and ‘slow’. We took a short stroll around the park where Malahide castle is and monastery ruins. I have visited the castle before it is not spectacular inside but definitely it is quite charming from outside. We will be back to visit the gardens during the summer months.
As usual after few hours we were starving and we got to a Fish Shack. It’s a nice restaurant with great sea food and good prices considering it is almost Dublin. We went for a platter of fried calamari, salmon pate, prawns and crab meat sandwich, house cut fries green beans wrapped in parma ham and parmesan shavings we paid 25 euros. Calamari was just perfect which is not always a case.
In the end we visited beach which looks more like a backwater then idyllic white sand one – welcome to Ireland!
Looking for more places to visit around Dublin? Check out our post about Wicklow mountains!
