Grianan Ailligh

On a cloudy day, that felt like rain, we drove up the small road to the hilltop where Granan sits. It is a round stone fort, although the ancient tradition calls is a meeting place. The lairds would come for conference, bringing their men at arms, because from Granan one can see for miles in all directions. Each laird would arrive from their own direction and could watch to see that there was no ambush being planned. Today we weren't worried about ambush, just thrilled at the 360* view. This is truly an island of water!

The stones which make up the Granan are black, but occasionally have a piece of quartz. The fort is 77 ft in diameter. It was likely built aroung the 5th century, BC. Tradition says that St Patrick baptized Owen O'Neill, the founder of the clan, here in 450 AD. The O'Neill's lived here until the 12th century when it was damaged by the army of Murtagh O'Briean, King of Munster.

This is another one of those magic places, just because it has been here so very, very long.

Farther up the Inishowen Peninsula is the village of Cardonagh, home of a 7th century cross. It is carved with human figures and, at least to my eyes, Celtic designs. There are two little posts on either side that are supposed to be David as the slayer and David as the poet.

Weather

Weather people every where are the same, wrong a large part of the time. Since we have been here, almost every day has had some rain in the forecast. Fortunately, we have had rain only two days. And heavy rain only once! I suppose somewhere in Ireland it is raining, just not on us!

Perhaps we brought the sun with us from Tucson. Thank goodness we left the heat there.

Going to The South

 

The island that is Ireland is divided in two. The North, Northern Ireland, is a part of the United Kingdom. The South, The Republic of Ireland, is an independent nation. Today we went to the most northern part of Ireland, Malin Head, which is in The South. If it doesn't make sense, just pull up a map and look. Ah, that Irish sense of humor!

I expected Malin Head to be deserted. Boy was I wrong. There were lots of people, but we were the only non locals. A little caravan has set up a snack bar, so folks were having tea and coffee.

Looking out over the bluff, you can see a tradition for visitors; use the white rocks to spell out your name or drawing or even EIRE! One little boy had gone ahead of his family to start his name, when he father saw he was taking rocks from other names to make his own. 'Hamish, don't you steal rocks from EMMA, find your own rocks. That's cheating!' The woman standing next to me said, 'Ah, Hamish. Such a fine Irish name.'

West of Milan Head, there is nothing but ocean until you reach the Americas. If you go northwest you come to Iceland, but who wants to go there, what with the volcano spewing?

Back from the point a way we found this farm house, complete with cows, horses, goats and two wagon wheels painted red. It's for rent as a self catering holiday house. You would have to bring a lot of food, as the road is long and crooked back to a town with a grocery. And just forget about pizza delivery!

Game Fair at Shane's Castle

No, it's not a meeting of folks who play games, silly. A Game Fair is for people who hunt, fish, train dogs and birds, all for catching game animals. It's ok, cause we didn't know what it was either, but the weather was gorgeous, so we went!











There were lots of beautiful dogs walking their people. They had terrier and lurcher racing, which was actually dogs chasing a 'rabbit', 3 at a time. The funniest was one little Irish terrier who was ahead, but then some one yelled his name as in 'Go Fido!' and he ran over to them instead of finishing the race. In another, one of the dogs, who had obviously done this before, took a short cut across the field and caught the 'rabbit' before the others!











Folks selling their wares abounded. Need a 6 room tent? We thought it might work for the Great Danes, they could each have their own room. Now they have to settle for sharing a small tent....poor mistreated puppies!






We also saw a beautiful black and white miniature Schnauzer whose tail had not been docked. I really like the natural tail. We were too busy admiring him to remember to take a picture! Wonder if I could bring a miniature Schnauzer puppy home as my souvenir?

Our visit was capped off with a Pipe Band marching by!

A Day on the Coast

The weather was beautiful, so we decided to find some more places from the National Trust. The crooked roads took us first to Castlerock, a cute little village where part of the old seawall is made from stones cut from the Giant's Causeway, well before it was a protected place.




Journeying further along we came upon Downhill perched on the edge of the rugged headland, jutting out into the sea. The mansion was built in the 18th century by the eccentric Earl Bishop, one of several houses he owned. The construction is stone block, with large rooms to house he art collection. After a fire in the early 1800's, it was rebuilt with a garden room, complete with retractable roof!







The Earl Bishop also constructed a round building right at the cliffs edge which he named the Mussenden Temple, after his sister in law. The building has four opening, positioned for each direction. The front door is south, with windows on the other three; the one looking north over the ocean is breathtaking! The Temple was originally a library, but the walls are bare.





Now for the sad part of this story. The house was still inhabited in 1949. The RAF used it during WW2 for housing. After the war, the owner fell deeply into debt, so, he stripped the place, selling off the art, furnishings, any wooden parts, such as staircases and eventually, the lead roof, leaving the entire building opened to the elements! The National Trust was finally able to aquire it in 1970's.




We left Downhill rather depressed, and drove down the road to Hezlett House, a 17th century thatched cottage, the arrived to the National Trust intact. They even gave us packets of seeds to plant!



Time for the beach at Magilligan Strand! There were some brave souls playing in the water, but we were happy to spend our time looking for shells.

On the way home, we drove past Binevenagh, a 384 ft mountain. Honest, it looks bigger in person!

Ulster American Folk Park, Emigration from the Irish Point of View

Few of us realize that without the Irish, especially the ones from Ulster, America would not be the great country it is today. After going through the Ulster American Folk Park, there can be little doubt.

The park is a collection of buildings, starting with The Old World. There is a single room cabin, Weaver's cottage and Meeting House with a Vestry; to give you a feel for how the locals lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. These are followed by the Campbell house, Tullyallen Mass house, and the Hughes House, the boyhood home of John Joseph Hughes, the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York. We even found a cart like John Wayne gave Maureen O'Hara in
"The Silent Man"!







Entering Ulster St, you find yourself visiting 19th century storefronts, complete with post office, Chemist, printer and Reilly's Spirit Grocers, a pub which also sold groceries. Then you enter the docksides with a ship showing the size and telling of the condition the emigrants withstood. Exiting the ship, you have 'landed' in America! Time for some culture shock!



The houses on the New World side are mainly from Pennsylvania. There is a log cabin, log barn, such as we saw regularly around Mertztown, a log farmhouse from the early 1800's and a western Pennsylvania log farmhouse from the 1900's.



Now why so much from Pennsylvania? The Park also contains the boyhood home of Judge Thomas Mellon, the founder of Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, PA. His family, over the years, have been major donors to the Park, with the log house and earlier log farmhouse being replicas of the ones built by the Mellon family when they arrived in America.



We enjoyed our visit, as well as the information, although some of it was a little off. Such as the docent who explained that one of the houses was new to the park, coming from West Virginia over close to the border with Hawaii. We think she meant Ohio.

Derry/Londonderry; The Slash City

What one calls this city on the Foyle River, depends on your political persuasion. For Nationalists, it's Derry, for Loyalists or Unionists, it's Londonderry. Because it is nearly always referred to with a slash between the two names, lots of the locals call it Slash. Gotta love that Irish sense of humor!

Derry has the oldest, most complete set of city walls left in Ireland. It has always been a fortified town. We were able to walk the entire way around the old town on the wall. The views were great.

One side of town is Loyalist and the other side is Nationalist, each with their appropriate signs and art work.

We found Derry to be very busy. Lots of cars and trucks. Impossible to find a park. Pedestrians, especially young mothers with strollers. Pensioners enjoying the nice weather, even though it did look like rain. Construction and reconstruction, everywhere. We skipped the St Columbe cathedral because with all the construction and renovation going on, we couldn't figure out how to get in!

After what seemed like hours of walking, we stopped into a local pub, The Gainsborough, for a pint. It was a good choice; no tourists, but us, and as we sat and sipped, more locals came in. A elderly gentleman, dressed in a suit with cuff linked cuffs on his shirt, sat down by me. He had the most beautiful cane, which he told me was Blackthorn. He asked where we were from, then referred to our place of residence as "The Americas", as he had family who had emigrated to Long Island, New York. Everyone in the pub started listening to our conversation. The gentleman had suffered a stroke, so had to speak slowly and think between his sentences, as well as to my replies. He was a war veteran, who still did his own shirts, but let others 'put a crease in my trousers'. A thoroughly delightful gentleman, who did say it was much nicer since the end of the Troubles. As we were leaving, he took my hand and said, 'In Ireland we do not say goodbye, we say Safe Home'.

Castles and Spades

 

Carrickfergis Castle is the best preserved remaining Norman castle in Ireland. It was built by John de Courcy around 1177 , starting out as a simple Keep but gradually expanding over the years until it was a proper Castle by 1250. In 1760 it was heroically defended against the French who greatly outnumbered the English soldiers, who used their tunic buttons as ammunition, and eventually, surrendered. In the early 19th century it was again rearmed to do battle with the French. This time they added 22 cannons!

The location for the castle is spectacular, being built on a rock point that sticks out into the bay of Carrickfergis.

This being the end of the school year, there were several bus loads of school children on field trips. The children here wear uniforms, complete with ties and jackets for both boys and girls. The girls had skirts with matching knee socks, while the boys wore trousers. The only non uniform item were their backpacks or bookbags, some plain, others quite fancy.

On the way to Carrickfergis, we passed a sign for Patterson's Spade Mill. Since it is a National Trust property, we decided to take a look. What a pleasant surprise.

This is the last surviving spade mill, not just in Ireland or even the UK, but in all of Europe! The tour took us through the entire production of a spade, but there are 170 different styles in Ireland alone!

Each type of spade has it's own handle style, with the length of the handle made to the correct height for the person who will be using it.

There are two spade makers working in the mill. They are looking for younger people to teach the trade secrets to, so the skill does not die.

The mill is run by a water turbine which was built in Connecticut.