Letterboxing with a Seaview

At last there is a break in the rain and Fireball and I were able to get out and go hunting for letterboxes. The clue for the first one involved walking all along the bay, a super way to show Fireball the seaside. The bay is quite a large one with wonderful golden sands when the tide is out. 

There are marvellous views of the islands as you walk along, we have three islands just off the coast, one you can even walk across to at low tide, but you have to keep a careful lookout because there is a rapid fill when the tide comes pouring back in behind you and you can get stuck out there . Some of the local fishermen cycle over to the island with their buckets hanging from the handlebars when they collect shellfish. This gives them a slight advantage time-wise as it is possible to set out whilst there is still a little seawater left. It is quite an incongruous sight to see bicycles on the seashore with their wheels splashing up the remnants of seawater. 
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 This island has a Martello Tower on it, these were built in the Napoleonic wars to repel invaders if they should ever come. The towers were built all around the coast, all within site of each other, but the feared invasion never happened. 

One of the other islands has a ruined church on it. According to legend, St. Patrick landed on a small offshore island here where he settled to continue his work. The island is now known as Inish Patrick or St. Patrick’s Island. 

On the island with St. Patrick was a goat. One day he ventured to the mainland in an effort to convert the locals to Christianity, but whilst his back was turned the local men stole, killed and devoured St. Patrick’s goat. When he returned to the island and realized his goat was missing, the irate Saint used two of the islands to make two leaping strides towards the mainland. The locals tried to deny they had any knowledge of the goat’s fate but could only bleat like a goat. Their voices returned when they were prepared to share the truth about the goat’s death. The men of skerries are nicknamed goats to this day.

Anyway enough about the local legends and on to letterboxing. When we finally got to the end of this lovely walk we did indeed find the letterbox and Fireball had a great time stamping into the visitors book with his brand new signature stamp.

 He had to be careful as there was a small cliff nearby so he made sure he was in an area where he could stamp up in safety.

Next was the walk back to the car park, it is so lovely with all the views that we didn't mind walking back the same way, especially as there was a small letterbox near to the car that we needed to find when we got back. We had to poke our heads right into a bush to find this one, the bush has grown a bit since the letterbox was first planted in 2008 - 7 years old - good going for a little letterbox. It had a little visitors book which had to be renewed but otherwise it had survived intact. The letterbox is only a small one but any sized letterbox is a bonus as far as we are concerned :-) At this point it started to rain again so we hurriedly took the box to the car so that we could stamp up in dry conditions. 

Fireball extracting the little visitors book

Of course a soon as we got to the car the sun came out again, but we continued to stamp up in the car so that the box and its contents didn't get damp and messy if it started again. Fireball has a special small signature stamp especially for when we find a tiny logbook.

Stamping in with Fireballs small signature stamp

After all that we returned the box to its position in the bush and went home for tea. At least that is two letterboxes that are in still there and in good condition :-)