Bellinter House – Highly Recommended

We’ve been to Bellinter House before and really enjoyed it, so to celebrate my “big” birthday Tracey treated us to another visit there on Saturday night. Bellinter is a quirky sort of place and if ever the expression “Shabby Chique” was apt then it applies here. The staff are really relaxed and it’s a great place to sit around on comfy chairs, drink a pint (or two) and chat or read a book! The hotel is owned by the same people who own Eden in Dublin and have another branch of the restaurant in the hotel, so great food is guaranteed too!

Bellinter is situated on the banks of the Boyne close to Navan, County Meath so conscious of missing a Sunday mountain bike spin and knowing that there would be a lot of food and drink involved I decided to salve my conscience by cycling down and back! I reckoned it was about 65kms from home so pretty manageable. Tracey drove down in the car with all the gear ..... well it was my birthday!!

The trip down was a “doddle” - Saturday was a really nice day, sun shining and no wind! I left home at about 12.45pm and was at the hotel by 3pm. 61kms, 2hs 12 min and an average of 28kms per hour, I was flying! We’d booked a room in the “Stable Block” so I was able to wheel my bike into the sitting room and forget about it!

Quick shower, soup and sambos, newspapers and a couple of pints! So relaxing! Well earned “nap”, pre-dinner drinks, fantastic food with a bottle of wine and a night cap, I know I’m getting old but that really works for me!!!

The trip home was another story altogether! Sunday morning was wet and I had a stiff headwind the whole way home – the spin was a bit of a grind! Amazing the difference the wind makes, my average speed dropped by about 4kms per hour and it was just hard work.  I’d love to have had some company to share the load. To add insult to injury when I got back to Dublin I decided to cycle straight downs the quays, across the East Link and out along the coast road. The tide was in and huge waves were breaking over the road – I got soaked! I met a “proper roadie” going across the toll bridge and we cycled out together as far as Shankill, he was heading down to Arklow and back ..... I didn’t envy him!

Anyway, we had a really nice night away and I got two decent spins in ...... happy days!



Heading home .... just before the rain started!