28th August 2017 - Coleraine - Londonderry

Monday 28^th August 2017

Knocktarna House

Knocktarna House

Coleraine

Northern Ireland

The driveway

We are full of information about the history of Ireland now.

The rivers are all so full and lively - this one in Bushmills, where we had dinner last nigh

Still not completely across it all…I would not pass an exam!

Michael Palin described the train journey between Derry~Londonderry and Coleraine as “one of the most beautiful rail journeys in the world.”  So we left the little blue car  in Coleraine and caught this train, to Londonderry and back.

Train, with Mussenden temple above

It was indeed a beautiful ride.

I didn’t take any beautiful photos.  It was dark and drizzling.  But Google took one for me – a nice one of the Mussenden Temple we went to yesterday, at Downhill Demesne (about to fall off the cliff and onto the railway line…)

Guildhall from Google

I liked Londonderry very much.  We went into the Guild Hall and learned a lot about the Plantation and the heinous treatment of the Irish people over many centuries.  We had a cup of coffee in the café and looked out the window to see teeming rain…oh dear a walk around the walls would maybe not be fun…

On the wall

But miraculously it all cleared and we were able to walk right around the fortified city area on top of the walls, on a wide road.

Rooftops from  the wall 

To my surprise there was a Trojan horse peering over the tall ramparts.  ???  But a nice explanation – Londonderry is a city of stories, and what better stories than Homer’s??  The horse will be there for ten days, to commemorate the ten years of the Trojan Wars.

We now know what a bastion is – a wider area on a city wall, good for placing one’s canons. 

Pete posing with canons on a bastion

Apparently this is the largest collection of canons in the UK.  Londonderry was a very successfully fortified city.

We could see over the wall into the Bogside area, where there are lots of murals celebrating The Struggle.  (Bernadette Devlin etc.)

(Just as a small matter of interest…Ireland is so very wet everything grows prolifically – it is like the tropics.  Nearly every chimneypot and crevice is sprouting some sort of plant.  The roots must be eating away at the houses!)

Tomorrow – back to Belfast, and the next day off to Thetford in the UK.  Not much grass growing under our feet!!

Very pretty but possibly just a bit fake...in the touristy part of Londonderry

27th August 2017 - Coleraine - Giant Causeway - Rope Bridge - Dark Hedges - Downhill Demesne

Sunday 27^th August 2017

55 degrees 01.159N

06 degrees 34.815W

Coleraine – Knocktarna House

Back in Northern Ireland.

We are very comfortably ensconced in a beautiful mansion set in 12 acres of glorious woodland.

With trees dating back to 1836…

A most fabulous copper beech

And what Paddy assures me is a badger sett!  I am keenly looking out for a glimpse of an actual badger…but they only come out at night to dig large gouges in the luxuriant green lawn.  Maybe tonight!

Hidden under the thick leaf littler...maybe a badger sett!

We are staying with a delightful family with beautiful dogs – Nala and Luke.  They add value and interest to every walk in the woods.

A miracle – no rain since we have been here!

Yesterday we zipped around in the little blue car, seeing the sights of the coast of Northern Ireland along with a large cohort of tourists, mostly in coaches, some in cars.  All carparks full, all walking tracks heaving.  Occasionally I felt cross and aggrieved – why wouldn’t these wretched tourists move out of the way so I could take an unencumbered of an area of great natural beauty??  And the tourists behind me were doubtless saying the same thing about me…

Loved the Giants Causeway.  So did everyone else.

Near Carrick-na-Rede there is a rope bridge which stretches out over a gap between a small island and he mainland, 100 feet above the sea.  It is quite a long walk, up and down a step cliff path.  Elbow to elbow with our fellow tourists.

We were mildly keen to cross over to the little island but…they were selling tickets and the next possibility for setting foot on the bridge was one and a half hours away.  So we kept walking, expecting to see the bridge at close quarters anyway.  Well…we did see it but my phone got a better look because I held it out at arms length to take a photo of what I was trying to look at…

We went up and down a few steep little roads to look at steep little villages and tehn set off for our next estiantion – the Dark Hedges.  Pete didn't quite get why  I wanted to see this avenue of twisty spooky trees but…it was very lovely.

I took a photo of the branches above the road so as to avoid the hordes on the path…

And then I found (thank you Google) a Game of Thrones photos of the King’s Road.

Fabulous!  Game of Thrones tours are a big money spinner here – much of it was filmed here and a bus tour will take you to ten different locations.  Including the Dark Hedges of course!

This morning we went to Downhill Demesne, not far from Coleraine, with Paddy, the dogs, three children, leaving Vanessa a blessed few hours to work on her PhD.

It was very beautiful – a ruined mansion on a hilltop, with a beautiful pavilion built by the earl for his beautiful cousin, in whom he had a romantic interest.  The pavilion is set right on the edge of the cliff…but apparently when it was built there was a road right around it, wide enough for a horse and carriage.  The cliff has eroded away quite alarmingly and presumably in the not too distant future this lovely little tribute to the beautiful cousin will tumble into the sea and onto the railway line below.

Downhill Beach from the pavilion

We made another stop at Hezlett House, which is very unusual in that is has a thatched roof.  Most of the thatching in Ireland has been removed over the past decades – very sad.

The National Trust is very active in the UK, preserving buildings like these

Tomorrow we are going on the Coleraine-Londonderry train, which is, so Paddy tells us, one of the most scenic train journeys of the world.

Dunseverick Castle ruins (Ballycastle)

This is all very lovely and fascinating.  My brain is full of images and newly acquired knowledge!

It is so damp here fungi grow in fantastic formations