The sky was blue, the sun shone and high winds had abated yesterday morning when a Church of Ireland rector began a 12-hour stint up the 38m ( 125ft) spire of St Saviour's Church in Arklow.
Rev Nigel Sherwood decided to raise funds to pay for repairs to the church roof by spending a day on the spire as he was writing his Christmas cards.
As pupils from the local Carysfort National School shouted up encouragement, Rev Sherwood explained he had been looking forward to his stint on the scaffolding around the steeple - not least because of the organ recitals that would be held in the church during the day.
He said he was particularly interested in hearing the recently formed Arklow Gospel Choir, which was due to rehearse for a Christmas concert in St Saviour's yesterday evening.
In the meantime, he was enjoying the view. Sitting in his deckchair, wrapped up in special clothing lent to him by the Arklow Lifeboat service, and being interviewed on his mobile phone, he declared it "a glorious day - I could be in the South of France".
St Saviour's is on the hill at the top end of Arklow's Main Street. He said he could see Lugnaquilla to the west - "it must be, it is the highest peak and it is a very clear day. You would see a bigger mountain behind if it was not Lug." To the south he had a view of Tara Hill and the beaches of the southeast. "I can't see Wales, but the Arklow wind farm out to sea looks magnificent, really good."
The scaffolding on which Rev Sherwood was stationed is attached to just one side of the spire, so the rector's views did not extend a full 360 degrees. "But you can't move about too much anyway the floor is there but there are holes," he added.
The only problem with the morning was finding time to attend to his correspondence on a nearby table. "I had hoped to get away for the day, use the day off to catch up with the correspondence. "When the scaffolding went up people were giving us money in the streets and somebody suggested this. I had been up once or twice to view the work and we decided to do it."