merlinlocations | A Locations Trip to Dublin (Reply)

Bruce and I have just spent a few days in Dublin, which was terrific despite the cold and windy weather – full of serendipitous moments for Locations Geeks!

North Bull Island

It all started off promisingly as we flew in on Thursday, and I was gazing out the plane window at the Poolbeg Generating Station and North Bull Island, both Parked locations. We collected our hire car, checked in to the hotel, and then promptly headed out to North Bull Island.

Which is as good a time as any to thank Aggy and Cuddles for finding so many of these locations for us! Couldn’t have done this without you, girls. ♥

There was a beautiful late–afternoon light there as we arrived, but unfortunately the sun disappeared behind some thick clouds soon after – and the wind off the Irish Sea was bitingly cold – so we really didn’t catch the location at its best! Despite the wind, we walked out along the sea wall to the third bathing shelter, which I am now certain is the one they used when filming. It was such a thrill to be there!

A conveniently beanie–hatted man walks past the bathing shelter. (Actually I was soon wishing I’d taken a beanie myself, as my hair basically looked windswept the entire time we were in Dublin, not to mention strands of it flying past the camera lens whenever I was trying to take a shot!)

Fred and Cathal were here! The set designers obviously did a fair bit of work here, including putting lights along the flat roof to either side of the entrance.

My stalwart Bruce sheltering from the wind and somehow still managing to smile!

This guy walking across the wet sands provided a great photo opportunity.

Looking across Dublin Bay from North Bull Island to Poolbeg Generating Station as the sun makes a brief belated appearance.

From the mainland looking back across the bridge out to the island. I’m sure we all recognise this from Fred and Cathal’s walk out to the island.

The Car Park on Kilakee Road

The real find this time round was the lookout where Fred and Cathal park, with Dublin’s night–time lights in the background – which we visited on Friday, during the day.

Bruce and I had found mention of a lookout in the Wicklow Mountains that seemed to fit the bill, so we headed up there. Unfortunately – or fortunately, as it turned out – the directions we found seemed to indicate that the lookout was actually out beyond Glencree, towards the Sally Gap. Despite passing the correct location and suspecting that was it, we kept driving anyway just in case – and as it turned out we were very glad we did. Not long after you pass the lookout, you climb up into the mountains proper, which become really dramatic, all bleak moor and peat bog. We both really loved it.

Once we were out there past the Sally Gap and it was really very clear that we’d gone too far, we turned around and came back to what turned out to be the real thing – in terms of Parked locations! There is a car park just off the road on the right as you’re heading up to it. The view is then across the road on the left. Fred and Cathal actually parked on the left, just off the road, rather than in the car park itself.

The location can be found on the Kilakee Road (the R115, also known as Old Military Road) just where there’s an intersection with the Cruagh Road (the L8124). The Kilakee Road takes a sharp turn uphill to the right just after the intersection, which is about 13 kilometres from the Dublin city centre. As far as I’m aware, the only way to get there is to drive.

The instructions we’d found describe the car park as ‘uninviting’, which is fair enough – and led to much joking from Bruce about our trip to Dublin basically involving a tour of all its most uninviting car parks…

By the way, if you want a good cuppa while you’re up there in the hills, I’d recommend the Country Store & Café at Timbertrove, which is not so far from the car park, back towards Dublin on the same road. (Their Banoffee Pie looked great, too, though alas I resisted.) They also have a terrific view of Dublin Bay from the Café windows.

This was taken from the top end of the car park looking down across the road and out towards Dublin – unfortunately it was too cloudy a day to get a clear view. Fred and Cathal parked just off the road on the far side, between the second and third trees of that row of four.

For what it’s worth, the intersection and all its signposts, with Dublin Bay in the background.

I remembered the two trees, but photographed the wrong ones. Doh! This is the first and second trees of the row of four, so our beloved characters were just to the right of this shot.

Looking back towards the car park from the other side of the stone wall. The two stone ‘gateposts’ in the foreground can be seen just behind Fred’s car, so you can imagine them parked just off to the left of this shot.

Fred and Cathal at the lookout.

"Have you ever seen a leaf fall off a tree?”

“I mean, have you ever seen the actual moment when a leaf breaks from its branch? ... It's a beautiful thing."

{weeps}

The Car Park on Pigeon House Road

And here we are in another uninviting car park! The car park just beyond the Poolbeg Generating Station is, of course, the main location used in Parked. The day wasn’t quite so cold for us, but the wind was still very strong.

This is looking out to sea but towards the left, where we can see a bit of a beach, then the South Wall extending out to the lighthouse. (“We’re not walking out there, are we?” Bruce asked in apprehension. I reassured him we were not.)

The view out across the Irish Sea.

From the path looking south.

From further south, looking back towards the car park, and that circular construction (what are those things?) that features in the film.

I don’t think we ever see the Poolbeg chimneys from the car park in the film, but they’re right there, towering over everything.

A Film Premiere in Bray

The excuse for us going to Dublin at all was to attend the premiere of the documentary titled Behind the Sword in the Stone by Mossy Hare Productions, which was about the making of John Boorman’s 1981 film Excalibur. The original film has long been a favourite of ours, and Nigel Terry was pretty much my Arthur for all the decades until Bradley James came along. I helped crowdfund the film, so was invited to attend the premiere with Bruce as my ‘plus one’.

The film was screened on the Friday night in Bray, which was where Boorman was based at the time. And we discovered that much of Excalibur was filmed in the Wicklow Mountains – in particular, Liam Neeson mentioned the Sally Gap, which we’d actually visited (by accident) earlier that day! That’s serendipity for you! It was easy to recognise the peat–bog landscape in the film snippets based on what we’d seen.

So, that was a thrill!

Excalibur always makes me cry, even all these years later, and the documentary certainly had me all damp–eyed as well. It was really interesting to watch, and full of insight. It was also fascinating to compare the making of this pre–CGI film, where everything basically had to be created ‘in camera’, with the making of our beloved Merlin, where they had so much more technology available.

The Car Park at the National Aquatic Centre

On the Saturday we did the regular tourist thing and visited Malahide Castle – which I’m sure has been used as a filming location, but we didn’t enquire too deeply into that! Both the castle and the gardens are well worth a visit if you’re ever in the area.

Then on the Sunday it was time to come home… In another piece of serendipity, I’d realised that our hotel was only a few minutes away from the National Aquatic Centre, which is where Fred and Cathal used the swimming pool and met Jules. So on our way back to the airport, we stopped off and took a photo or two…

I have now uploaded larger versions of these photos and more up to Flickr!

And so ended our wonderful Locations Trip to Dublin! We were probably leaving at just the right time, as the day was colder than ever, and there was snow on the hills…