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.

The Circles at Beaghmore

Driving from Kilrea on our journey to find the Circles of Beaghmore, the roads were progressively narrower and narrower, until we drove out to the circles on one lane. At least it was paved! Finding the circles was quite easy, they had signs once we were within 2 miles.

These stones are the smallest we have seen set into circles. The tallest was about my height.

It was quite easy to visualize people moving these stones, unlike the huge ones in other places. Beaghmore is dated at 6000 bc, that makes them older than Stonehenge, but younger than the stone rows at Carnac in Brittany. Like a lot of things, circles seemed to get fancier as they went on.



Beaghmore is a series of 7 circles. 6 are set in pairs with a rock caern between them. In the caerns were found cremated remains; a burial place for one person. Leading to the single circle were two lines of rocks, one for lining up the summer solstice sunrise, the other to show the moonrise on the same day.



When these stone were erected, the land was forested. Over time, the forests died and the area became a bog. It was in the 1960's that peat cutters, a main source of heating fuel in Ireland, reached the level of the stones. Fortunately for us, they realized this was something unusual, and called in the University to figure it out.

Place such as Beaghmore always feel special to me. Why would people who had to work every minute just to survive, take the time and energy to build these circles? There are many theories. I think they did it because it was enjoyable. And it is still enjoyed by people, 8000 years later.

Springhill House and the Weelbrook Beetling Mill

Northern Ireland has been working to build it's tourist industry. While we have seen a few tour buses about, these have only been at the known destinations, such as Giant's Causeway. So some National Trust properties are only opened weekends until July 1, the start of summer holidays. To our American minds, summer vacation begins June 1. We never thought about Springhill and Weelbrook Beetling Mill being closed on Friday. There was nothing else to do but come again on a weekend, which we did on Sunday.

Springhill House

Springhill is a beautiful country home built in the 1680's by William Conyngham for the woman he wanted to marry. The lady's father drew up a contract that stated William would build a two story house, with all the proper rooms, as well as a certain number of outbuildings, before the two could marry. What a Dad!












The house is haunted by Olivia, a former lady of the house, whose husband killed himself in one of the bedrooms. This room is always cold, noticeably so on the afternoon of our visit. The house warden, who lives in one wing, also swore he heard the cradle rocking in the nursery on several occasions. We didn't see Olivia during our visit.




We did meet the young woman who was working in the tea room, who ended up being our tour guide as well, after none of the 3 guides scheduled to work arrived. We were rather glad they didn't, as Paula did a wonderful tour with lots of interesting and funny information. She was a classic Irish beauty, with sparkling blue eyes, wonderful smile and lilting laughter. We neglected to get her picture.





The gardens at Springhill House are in full bloom with late spring and early summer flowers. We plan a return visit in the fall to see what is blooming then.

















Next on the itinerary was the Beetling Mill. A water wheel powered mill where the linen cloth was pounded by 4 x 4 pieces of beech in a up and down motion while the wheel of cloth turned round. This made the linen stronger and smoother until it was damask, instead of course cloth.

Weelbrook Beetling Mill

The mill race was full of these beautiful flowers!

Carrick-A-Rede

Carreck-a-Rede, on the North Antrim Coast road, is a chasm between the land and a rock island which is 30M deep and 20M wide. Traditionally, the salmon fishermen built a rope bridge between the two, sothey could access a good fishing area. I would guess what we crossed was a much nicer rope bridge and all of the area is owned by the National Trust.

It's a 1 km hike, with lots of steps, to the bridge. Then you have to climb down a metal ladder thing. The views are spectacular!!

We saw gulls and Pigeon Guillimots nesting on what were almost sheer cliff faces. The water was very clear, but we couldn't see any marine life.

Honey, Where's The Guide Book?

When ever we travel, we always have a guide book. Lots of useful information; what to see, how much things cost, maps, and such. Sometimes they come in handy when changing a flat and the jack just isn't big enough.

Glad we brought the book for all of Ireland and not just Northern Ireland or we would still be stuck by the side the road!  Thanks also to the gentleman who loaned us the jack!

Dunluce Castle

Our first castle was found by BIB. She has an amazing amount of information in that little
box, so when she told us there was a castle only 2.7 miles from the distillery, we had to go.

Dunluce Castle is really the shell of a castle, abandoned by the MacDonnall Clan in 1689 after the back wall, with the kitchen attached, fell into the ocean during a dinner party. No dessert that evening.

It is still an imposing sight, with magnificent views.

The Giant's Causeway, At Last!

After a couple of days trying to get adjusted to the time change, light change, and life in general, we were ready to go off on an adventure. When Bill asked me where I wanted to go first, there was only one answer, The Giant's Causeway! This is one of theose places I've wanted to see since reading about it in National Geographic when I was very young. Plus the story of Finn McCool is just too good of a tale!

You will notice the big grin on my face in all the pictures.....

We bought a membership in the National Trust, which will get us into of different places, some of which we would never pay individually to see, but with a membership, we will have to go to be sure and get our moneys worth.

After all the climbing around on the rocks, we headed to Old Bushmill Distillery for a tour and taste. This is the oldest licensed distillery in the United Kingdom, being in business since 1608. Now that's a lot of whiskey!

I've never cared much for whiskey, too harsh, but this Irish stuff is good.

Are We There Yet?

We were delayed in Chicago, even to the point of changing planes after we were boarded. We finally arrived in Dublin 4 hours late. Maria and Dennis were waiting holding little signs, "Bill and Mary", so we would be sure it was them. On the drive to Kilrea, Maria told us about the countryside, as well as comments about The Troubles when we crossed the border and drove into Belfast. Soldiers were billeted there, the helicopters took off from there, a lookout tower was there, all of this was bombed to the ground; now it is a bustling city with new construction.










Maria warned us the dogs might not be friendly when we first arrived, but to give them a chance to warm up to us. We took our bags to our room to freshen up. The dogs were immediately outside out closed door smelling. When we finished, we opened to the door to find Shiva looking at us from the end of the hall. She whirled and disappeared! By the time we walked to the entry area, she and Morgan were both there waiting for us with tails wagging, wanted to smell us and be rubbed and talked to, RIGHT NOW if you please! Guess we just smelled like the dogs lovers we are.


The house is very nice and comfortable. We sat around the kitchen table getting to know each other. First with coffee and biscuits (small cookies for you Americans), then later a bottle of wine. We met Maria's sister, Henry and friend, Ann, who came over to pick rhubarb. Dinner was take out pizza.

We were up late talking, not realizing the time, both from the jet lag and how very light it was outside at 11 pm, even though there was cloud cover!

Neolithic Stones

One of our passions when we are stayed in France and Cornwall was finding the neolithic standing rocks. Stonehenge is one that everyone has heard about. But, it's the lesser known ones we really enjoy searching out.

In France, quite by accident, we found La Roche au Feis. The Rock of Fairies. It felt like the fairies did indeed live there.

Cornwall's stones were harder to find. Some we finally put the coordinates into the GPS and followed BIB's* directions. They weren't very well marked, leading us to wonder if it was a subtle means of protecting them. We found The Hurlers on an outing with Molly the English black and white collie.

The Dancing Maids took a bit more sluething, but worth it.

* Bitch in the Box, our GPS.

Hillsborough, North Carolina

We have been fortunate to have two stays in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Chris and Jeff have a wonderful house set in the middle of the woods. Their house felt like home the first time we walked through the door; the colors, the wood ceilings, the bookcases overflowing, and the wonderful "treasures". They have two dogs, Maggie and Blue and two cats, Felix and Tasha.



The first time we stayed, we soon realized we would need to come again. The area around Hillsborough, Raleigh/Durham is chock a box full of things to do and see. Lots of history, parks, a whole valley full of potters, and did I mention the Barbeque? Well, Carolina claims to be the birthplace of bbq! Slow smoked until it falls off the bones, then add the sauce, traditionally one with lots of vinegar.
The history part is pretty cool, too. During our first visit we went to a Civil War battlefield where one of Bill's great Grandfathers had fought. During the second visit, it was a Revolutionary War battlefield. Looking through their records, we discovered a relative of a friend was in the same regiment as one of Bill's relatives. We like to think that the two of them not only knew each other, but were friends, just like their modern day counterparts.