NORTHERN IRELAND - Sunny Belfast

I left Belfast in strong sun with very little cloud yesterday and had amazing views on the flight back to London of both the Isle of Man and Liverpool. Beyond Liverpool though there was a blanket of thick cloud and Heathrow was wet, windy and cold. As a final post for this trip here are some pics from central Belfast.

Belfast Harbour

The River Lagan

The Big Fish or Salmon of Knowledge

City Hall

NORTHERN IRELAND - Amazing Fungi

Another day outside Belfast finds me exploring Strangford Lough, which is a large sea lough that's south east of the city. I travelled by bus down the Ards peninsula to Portaferry from where a car ferry crosses the mouth of the lough to Strangford itself.  The lough has a strong tidal race because the mouth is narrow with large amounts of water squeezing through.

Strangford Lough Ferry

Strangford Harbour

Strangford Lough

  

What I came here to see was Castle Ward, an easy walk along the shoreline from Strangford. This was the home of the Wards - aka Lord and Lady Bangor. It was an arranged marriage of convenience (she had lots of money) and they didn't really get on. Consequently when they started to build their new house they couldn't decide on a style. He wanted restrained Palladian, she wanted over the top Gothic. The result is a house with two facades, one Palladian, one Gothic and a house split right down the middle, his half in his style, hers in hers. Needless to say the marriage didn't last!

Lord Bangor's Palladian Frontage

Lady Bangor's in Gothic

Lady Bangor got the rooms with a view

   

One thing I really like about this time of the year is that it is Fungi season and Castle Ward has some particularly fine examples.

I must point out at this point though, that it is, look DON'T touch. I was once told, whilst at another National Trust property that what I was looking at with awe was deadly!!

Lastly - and I need some help with this as I have never seen an episode - Castle Ward was used for filming Game of Thrones - you may recognise this pic as "Winterfell".

NORTHERN IRELAND - "Lock 'Em Up!"

A strange thing was happening in Belfast when I woke up this morning - the sun was shinning and it was warm enough outside to take your coat off, but fear not dear blog readers by 4pm global warming was but a mere memory and it was bucketing down.

Now for today's report. As we saw at Kilmainham Jail in Dublin the one thing that the English have excelled at over the years is locking the Irish up. In the 21st century one thing the Irish have become very good at, it seems, is telling world all about it. Yes folks it's prison time again.

The Crumlin Road Jail in North Belfast only opened it's doors to the public in 2012 and whilst it was  built in 1845, it didn't close until 1996, so is a name that frequented the news reports throughout "The Troubles". Both Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams spent time there (although not in the same cell I hope!).

The guided tour was very good. We were taken  down into the tunnel, under the Crumlin Road, which linked the jail to the now derelict courthouse opposite. This was followed by a tour through C-Wing that culminated in being shown the condemned man's cell and execution chamber - the last hanging was in 1961.  

This is somewhere I would thoroughly recommend to visit.

Walking back into the city centre later, I did find some remnants of the old days when the kerb stones were painted (Red, White and Blue in Loyalist areas, Green White and Orange in Republican areas). But you have to look hard these days, times have changed.

I have spent the rest of the day chilling and wandering around the city centre and I write this earlier than I would normally do, as tonight in order to demonstrate the cultural side of the city I'm off to see Rigoletto  at the Grand Opera House.

NORTHERN IRELAND - To The Land of Giants

Today we are venturing out of Belfast so it's time to talk transport.

Because of the politics in Northern Ireland, the buses and trains were never privatised. Today a government company - Translink - runs a fully integrated system, the most obvious feature of which is that railway and bus stations are often in the same building aiding connections.

The last time I was here, which was a while ago now, the trains were ancient "Thumper" units (Yes they made a lot of noise) sporting signs proclaiming "SAVE OUR RAILWAYS". At that time there was a proposal to close everything except the line to Dublin and a few Belfast suburban stations. Today the network has been modernised and has a fleet of modern Spanish built trains, making a trip up to the Antrim Coast very easy.

First stop today Ballintoy. This small village is home to the National Trust's Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. 

It was originally put up each year by fisherman to allow them to get to their salmon fishery on a neighbouring island, today of course it is a major tourist attraction. Now as you know I'm not too good with heights but I force myself to do things, so I went across.

From Ballintoy you can walk along the Ulster Way to the Giant's Causeway, taking in White Park Bay and spectacular cliffs with views of Rathlin Island, Scotland and Donegal.

Rathlin Island in the background

White Park Bay

The plan was to spend most of the day walking, timing my arrival at the Giant's Causeway about two hours before the last bus back to the train at Coleraine. That way I was hoping to would miss most of the crowds - the causeway is the National Trust's most visited property. Fortunately the plan worked and it was not too crowded.

This rock formation is called "The Organ"

Now there are two theories to the Giant's Causeway:

1) That it was formed a long time ago by a volcanic eruption with the lava solidifying into the hexagonal basalt columns we see today (Nature uses hexagons to fill flat surfaces - think honeycomb)

or

2) It was built by giant Finn McCool to enable him to get across to Scotland. Finn McCool also scooped up a chunk of earth to throw at a rival and missed. The earth landed in the Irish Sea and became the Isle of Man, the hole where the earth had come from, filled with water and became Lough Neagh.

The National Trust are obviously going for theory number two because they know Finn's shoe size.

Either way it is all pretty impressive stuff and definitely deserves it's World Heritage Status.

Funniest sight of the day has to go to the the group of "Game of Thrones" tourists who were with their guide at Ballintoy Harbour - they were all dressed up in costumes!!

NORTHERN IRELAND - That Sinking Feeling

Greetings from Belfast. I arrived here yesterday evening and I'm having a really Titanic time!

I'm staying in the "Titanic Quarter" and the famous Harland & Wolff cranes - Sampson and Goliath are right next door

The big draw is just around the corner - the new Titanic Visitor Centre - the building itself is absolutely stunning.  As for what's inside I can't really make up my mind. Lots of information, interactive screens and films but I thought that what it really lacked was a good display of good old fashioned artefacts. I suppose the big problem is that they don't actually have a boat - it is after all at the bottom of the North Atlantic!

What got my interest really going was the stuff outside. This is the slipway where the Titanic was constructed and there was another beside it where they built the Olympic at roughly the same time.

Then in a dry dock there is the Nomadic that you could board. This is the last White Star Line ship in existence and was used in Cherbourg to ferry passengers from the port to the liners as, unlike Southampton, Cherbourg was too shallow for the ships to actually come along side the quay. The vessel took 1st and 2nd class passengers to the Titanic including the Astors and Margaret "Molly" Brown.

The Nomadic

The 1st class bar on the Nomadic

The deck on the Nomadic showing the gate separating 1st and 2nd class areas

Finally you can visit the Thompson Graving Dock. This is the dry dock that the Titanic was moved into to be fitted out. You see an old pump house and the pumps that pumped the water out of the dock.

From here it's outside to view the dry dock itself and to climb down some steps into it for a wander around. I have to admit it all felt a bit spooky especially as there were only a couple of other people there. The metal caisson that is basically holding back the River Lagan and Belfast Lough looks a bit rusty doesn't it?

There was actually a new concrete one behind it, but it did feel odd. In the picture below you can see the props that the keel would have rested on.

The former Harland & Wolff drawing offices where the ships were designed have recently been turned into a very nice hotel with a Titanic theme. Whilst I am not staying there on this trip I did eat in the bar this evening, good value and the cocktail list had one called Jack & Rose ......