Sunday 9th September - NI Trip (3)

Now we were heading towards His hometown, completely changed now, of course - everywhere is. I don't know if I would be able to find my way about the large village, now a large commuter area, where I grew up.

We have friends there; there was a time when we saw each other everyday at work, and most weekends, but again, thirty or more years ago our lives went on different tracks and we have only caught up with each other recently.

So, we unloaded the firewood, and settled to a good evening of 'catching up', starting with going to  Buncrana, just over the border, for an evening meal at a lovely place overlooking Lough Swilly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buncrana

Buncrana is the place where John Newton composed the hymn 'Amazing Grace' after surviving a serious storm; he later became a clergyman and was a curate at Olney in Buckinghamshire.

We were so lucky with the weather; it hardly rained at all while we were travelling around. I think we had just the one, maybe two days with rain over the whole week, so we saw the countryside from East to West at its very best.

On the was back, we stopped briefly at the Seamus Heaney Homeplace Museum and exhibition. We didn't have time to go round - but after we left, and while we were driving through the little roads to get back on the main road, it struck me how very rural Northern Ireland still is, even that close to the main towns.

Sunday September 9th - Round up of NI Trip (2)

We also stayed with cousins on the other side of the family - more wonderful hospitality!

It's so good to catch up on news, and with a year between visits, and a gap of around forty years before we started going back over, there is a lot to catch up on.

These cousins live in a more rural part of the country, in a farmhouse.

With a farmhouse kitchen - again a living/dining/kitchen. From this Aga comes another endless stream of delicious food - fresh fish, huge joints of lamb, eggs, bacon, toasted wheaten bread, potato farls...

Am I jealous? Hmm. And with this view from the kitchen window, who would ever feel the lack of a dishwasher? It's a far cry from suburbia.

We stayed the night, and work to the sight of scores of swallows flitting between the trees in the paddock outside our window.

After a hearty breakfast we got back into the car (which was heavily laden with a great sack of firewood in the boot from their own woodpile) and travelled across the country to our next port of call.

Sunday September 9th - Round up of NI Trip (1)

Round up is what one of our cousins in NI is using to deal with the pernicious weeds in their new bungalow.

We stayed with them in their rented bungalow, while the one they had just bought when we were staying with them last year is 'renovated'.

'Inverted' commas?

The bungalow they move into will have almost nothing in common with the standard picture window dwelling, almost completely enclosed by with laurels, conifers, brambles, bindweed and crocosmia.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/110418/Crocosmia-x-crocosmiiflora-Red-King/Details

I had always thought that this was called montbretia, and was a highly desirable addition to the garden (might put some in when we have the garden done) but beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

We had a great time staying with the cousins, and joining in with their enthusiasm as the 'new' bungalow took shape. I'm particularly envious of the 'big room' - a large, kitchen/dining/sitting place with floor-to-ceiling windows looking into the garden. A sort of combined conservatory, kitchen, lounge, dining room, just what I've always dreamt of.

While we stayed with them, at the beginning and end of our time in NI, we met quite a few of that side of the family - more cousins, and their children, and their children's children and enjoyed their wonderful hospitality.

We also did some sightseeing - a 'wee tour' around the Mountains of Mourne and a day at the Ulster Folk Museum.

I'm a bit low on photographs, but will rustle up some soon. 

At Last - All about our trip to NI Monday 14th - Saturday 19th

Well, not ALL about the trip...

Some edited high lights...

We were staying with cousins and friends that we've been getting to know again after decades of being apart. Some we met up with for the first time in years last year, so this was a second meeting.

It is a wonderful thing to be reunited with family and friends after so long, and find that we are still family and friends despite the gap in getting together. I'm not going to go into details, just to say that the hospitality throughout our stay was of EPIC, Biblical proportions. I daren't count the amount of cake, home-made shortbread, pieces of cake, platefuls and platters of food, cups of tea, bottles of wine that came our way. Thank you to everyone!

places we visited;

Tuesday 15th;
Newtonnards, ancient little town at the North end of Strangford Lough. Not much to say - we had various things to take care of, including eating cake (of course).

Tuesday 15th:Wet and rainy day, unlike the day before. We had a guided tour of Belfast City Hall

http://visitbelfast.com/things-to-do/member/belfast-city-hall

I didn't take many pictures this time; just this one of some stained glass in the entrance hall because I love the colours;

Then, after lunch we went to Paterson's Spade Mill, a National Trust Property.  The same man on the website photographs was there, hammering away at a block of iron to make hand-made spades (available to purchase for £120 - not today, thanks). 

American accent; "How long do these spades last?"

Pause

Northern Irish accent; "A lifetime. Or two or three lifetimes."

That must have been dark, dirty, noisy, hot, cold, dusty, exhausting work. Outside there were the ruins of the one-roomed cottages the workers lived in. You will look in vain for the waterwheel; it used a turbine, which appears very like an unexploded mine;

https://irishwaterwayshistory.com/2012/04/23/sluices-and-streams/

The day ended with a mega-meal in a restaurant in Carrickfergus; "What will you have for dessert, Madam?" Me "Just a spoon, please", so we ordered three puds between the six of us and a soon each. I could have started something here.

Thursday 16th

A Hot day - the weather was unpredictable, so say the least! We had planned to go on The Gobbins Cliff Path - have a look at the great video on the website!

On the day I backed out after the first section. I had been concerned about the up-ness and down-ness of the walk, and had contacted the centre in advance. In the end, I decided that I would hold the party up as my pace was So Slow, and we went back to the centre and enjoyed the exhibition instead. Maybe another time. 

We went on to stay with more cousins where we had an amazing day; food, wine, tea, talk, music, chat, food, wine...  quite a celebration.

Friday 17th

 Off to Londonderry. Or Derry. Or L'Derry. Whatever. The sun was shining as we drove over the Glenshane pass through the Sperrins. 

I could see where the peat had been cut and stacked on the slopes across the valley, and the colours and the scenery was beautiful. We didn't stay for long in the city; we've had a good look round twice before (the first time was when we got mixed up in the Apprentice Boys' Parade) and we were still too full of food to move far or fast.

We had a grand time with our friends, (they are the ones with the Airfryer) talking about our children (we are all dinkies when they left England)

Saturday 18th

We left at about lunchtime to return to our base, staying with cousins in Belfast. Coming back down the Glenshane Pass, you have the whole country spread before you (on a clear day like it was then!).

Just a couple of days left... we were out and about until the very last minute. I'll finish the story another time...

Saturday 8th August 2015 - A Surprise Parade

Well, it did rain on the parade, as our pictures show, but not too much.

How did the day start? With a trek across the country from Belfast, across the Glenshein Pass, to visit old haunts.

We started with the graveyard, to see BB's father's grave, but we drew a blank there. Unless it was the one grave with the illegible writing, or the other grave where the headstone had toppled over face down. So that's a task for another day, and probably after some research.

Onwards to Cumber Presbyterian Church,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killaloo

  and some ruins just nearby.

but it turns out that it is all that remains of one of the early plantain towns, called Brackfield Bawn, built by Sir Edward Doddington in 1611!

http://www.visitderry.com/P21045-Brackfield-Bawn-Heritage-Trail-Londonderry-Derry.aspx

Located off the main Derry to Belfast Road (A6) the ruin of the bawn house dates to 1611, built on lands of the skinners company. This type of fortified house was a requirement of the Plantation of county Londonderry by the 12 London companies; it was designed by Sir Edward Doddington, who designed the walls of Derry. A survey of the site in 1619 shows a village of twelve houses and a church near the bawn and house.

Onwards, through the grey day, to Londonderry. The road that we wanted, down to the Craigavon Bridge was closed for some reason, so we went through various side streets until we reached the way down to the river. This was when we discovered why the closed road, and the increasing crowds, and then drummers and fifers and men in suits and ceremonial collars... It was the day of the Londonderry Apprentice Boy's Parades. Big Ooops. The next few pictures aren't too clear; they were snatched through the car windows. We found ourselves literally IN the parade. A harassed steward guided us through the various bands, which were lined up ready to go, and lodged us in a space to one side.

Each group was lead by a mace bearer, leading first the drummers (snares, and a bass drum) and several rows of fifers. This was always followed by lines of men wearing suits, white gloves, sometimes bowler hats, and always the braided "collarettes". Finally there was a black, highly-polished car, or sometimes a minibus, carrying the veterans. And, for one band, us!. As they approached the bridge to the old town, we were guided off to the left, and out of the parade. Phew!

Intruigingly, the Craigavon Bridge is a double-decker bridge, so we were able to cross on the lower deck while the parades whistled and thumped their way above us.

 For future reference, the day to avoid (or aim for, depending on what you want) is the second Saturday in August.

Needless to say, most of the shops, and the cathedral and the museum, in the centre of the town were all closed. The modern enclosed shopping centres away from the main parade routes were open, so we were able to park in the multi-storey car park and wander around the city walls, looking out at the distant hills, or down at the parades weaving their way through the narrow streets below.

The atmosphere was generally a sort of seriously light-hearted. The sentiments behind the parades are clearly no laughing matter. Just beside the wall were the dying remnants of what had clearly been a HUGE bonfire; the houses closest to the fire all had boarded up windows to protect the glass from the ferocious heat.

In the streets behind the parades were plenty of police and armoured vehicles "just in case". We left around 4pm, after the last band had done the route and the clearing up was in progress.

We had no trouble, and I guess the same could have been said for most, if not all the people present.

Londonderry looks to be a lovely city, full of interesting places to see, and I look forward to going back sometime. When it is sunny. And the cathedral is open!

Tuesday 11th August - Game of Thrones

There may be spoilers in this post - not having ever had anything to do with the books of the TV series of The Game of Thrones, I can't tell.

But while we were in Northern Ireland for a few days, we were taken around to some spectacular places.

Like here:

The strand at Portstewart. Right at the far end, you might just be able to make out the Mussenden Temple. And here below are some views taken around Ballintoy Harbour

 

Here's me, pausing partway along the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.

It was a lot less scary than I feared it might be.

And finally (although this was the first place we stopped at) The Dark Hedges

Check out this link to find out more about these, and other Game of Thrones sites which we didn't actually stop at. Although, when we returned to the car after our adventures upon the rope bridge, I discovered that overflow car park, in Larrybane Quarry was yet another site (some fight scene or other - I did find an image, but lost it again.

http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/gameofthrones/

 

It was an amazing day, with stunning scenery. Not only that, we were lucky with the weather as well.