A Tour of Lambay & Dublin

27th-30th June 2024, 10am – 4pm

Meeting Point: Exact point to be confirmed. Dublin City Centre

This tour will encompass three of Sir Edwin’s most important works in Ireland – Lambay Island, Howth Castle and the Irish National War Memorial Gardens. Organised and led by David Averill.

Places are being offered by application. Most places have already been filled, but this webpage will be updated and members notified if any additional places become available. We are without a Secretary at present, so please email rebecca.e.lilley@outlook.com if you have any queries. Any single travelers will be required to share a twin room.

Below is the proposed itinerary. Timing is subject to change, due to working with tides, weather, boat operators etc.

Thursday 27th June

Circa 10am – Meet at a rendezvous point in Dublin City Centre (exact point to be confirmed). Travel by coach to Howth Castle where will be given a tour by the project architect, Maoliosa Molloy. The castle has a large library tower added by Lutyens c. 1910 together with many internal additions and alterations. The castle was sold in 2018 after nearly 800 years of continuous occupation by the Gaisford-St. Lawrence family. It is now unoccupied and awaiting permission for the conservation and restoration of the castle to form part of a hotel on the 450 acre estate. We hope to have a light lunch in Howth and then travel by coach to Dublin where we will tour the War Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge. This is the last of Lutyens war memorials to be constructed but one of the grandest in terms of scale and ambition. It was restored in the 1980s and is now a much-loved local park. The evening of Thursday 27th will be free for members to enjoy Dublin and our many restaurants (booking recommended).

On Friday 28th we will meet at the rendezvous point and members are asked to bring their cases for transport by coach to Malahide Marina. Times will be confirmed but we expect to depart from the marina at approximately 2pm. We will travel on 3 boats. The journey to the island takes about 30 minutes. Once on Lambay, we will be greeted by Millie Baring, one of the family and the manager of the hospitality business. Our exact itinerary is to be determined but will include a detailed guided tour of the Castle and environs, still the home of the Baring family and a unique repository of largely unaltered Lutyens interiors. We will stay in the White House (the Lutyens designed family guest house) and the simpler Cottage No. 6. A chef will provide all meals in a relaxed buffet style in the beautiful White House dining room. With the exception of alcohol, food costs are covered in the overall tour price. We hope to offer a walking tour up the island to see the famous wild wallabies. The island is also home to a herd of deer, seals, decorative looking sheep and a world renown bird sanctuary. From the island, weather willing, we will see some of the best sunsets on these islands.

On Sunday 30th (planned for approximately 4pm) we will travel back to Malahide where the coach will meet us to go back to Dublin via the airport.