Today’s outing was rather abbreviated, mainly because of the
weather and partly because of the limited itinerary, the latter entirely my fault.
But I did wonder too if we are subconsciously slowing down having been just too
busy and worn ourselves out trying to see as much as possible of this beautiful
country. Contrary to our style, Chris’s brother and his partner are also currently
in Ireland, touring by car and staying in hotels. They arrived in Dublin seven
days ago and are due to leave in a couple of days. Obviously they will have
only seen a fraction of the countryside we have, and traveling out of a suitcase
has its own stresses, but after a mere ten days or so, they will be able to put
their feet up when they get home before thinking about their next touring holiday.
Different strokes for different folks, but actually I wouldn’t mind a couple of
days’ fudge out holiday myself, and perhaps that is why I am not deriding the
fact we were home before 2 o’clock this afternoon.
Before we headed out of town this morning, I asked Chris to
detour north along the A2 travelled yesterday just as far as the top of the
hill above the town. I had hoped to gain a panoramic view over Larne, however
our view from the little park was more to the east than the south. But we did
see a large car ferry nearing the dock and a cargo ship further out.
What we did not see was the power station which I had
mentioned yesterday. I wrote that it was in Larne; it is not, and this should
have been clear by its name alone, Ballylumford. Ballylumford is located on
Islandmagee, the peninsula that reaches up from south of Larne, creating Larne
Lough lying between Larne and the peninsula, hence the sheltered nature of the
port. I am not sure of the distance across the Lough to Ballylumford from the
Larne wharf but it could easily be reached in minutes by a water taxi. Perhaps that
is how the Larne residents get to work there?
After our little recci above Larne, we headed south west,
down to county town Antrim, via the A8 we will travel tomorrow, the A57 and M2.
Antrim has a population of about 20,000 and is situated on the banks of Six
Mile Water, close to the eastern shore of Lough Neagh, the inland lake we
visited about a week ago on the opposite shore. The Clotworthy family, later
the Earls of Massereene, ousted the Irish back in the late 1600s and built secure
military quarters here, later converting them to a castle. Little remains of
that nowadays, it was burnt in 1912 and later demolished, however the gardens are
still in place.
These and the walking path along the Six Mile Water are
really Antrim town’s jewels because there is not a great lot else going for it.
Perhaps that comes of having spent half our time there in the drizzly rain
which does few towns any justice. And on the subject of the Six Mile Water,
this is in fact a twenty mile long river which rises on the Antrim plateau near
Larne.
However we did wander about the gardens; the large walled
that has been refashioned into an old fashioned parterre with common garden
flowers and looks wonderful even so late in the summer. We admired the many
trees which offer refuge to grey squirrels and the parkland throughout that
attracts the local morning dog walkers.
The pathway to the lough is wide and even, suitable for all,
and even in the less than perfect weather, it was pleasant to see the yachts
and other craft lined up along the far bank on their moorings. A couple of canoeists
skimmed by and the waterfowl were plentiful.
However by the time we returned to the town, the rain had
set in and we high-tailed it to the car, still with plenty of time left on our
fair priced parking ticket. This was after popping into the Old Courthouse,
built in 1726 for the sum of £150, and in operation until 1994. Nowadays,
after recent restoration it houses a café, a theatre and the information centre
where we picked up some brochures all about Belfast.
It was nearly lunchtime, but we decided we would find
somewhere more salubrious to park up and dine. So we set off across to the east
coast, via the M2 and the A8, turning onto minor roads through Mossley and
attractive Greenisland , soon reaching Carrickfergus.
This coastal town is County Antrim’s oldest town, and just
eleven miles from Belfast has a population of a little under 30,000. I suspect
there are many who commute into the city from here and there will be some who
work in the power station just up the road at Kilroot.
We were interested to learn that the British peerage title
of Baron of Carrickfergus, which had become extinct in 1883, was bestowed on
Prince William on his wedding day.
Apart from that fame, it is now a popular sailing centre and
also had the honour of hosting the Rothman’s cigarette factory until the 1980s.
Its closure would have been timely with the opening of Northern Ireland’s
largest power station in 1981. Unlike the one near Larne, this is fired by coal
and oil, hence the further use of superlatives is not incorrect.
On a sunny day we might have parked in the large car park
beside the castle there and paid to visit, but somehow “home” seemed a better
option. However a little further along the A2 still within the boundaries of
greater Carrickfergus, we pulled into a car park from where we had excellent
views across Belfast Lough to Bangor. From here we watched a couple of large
Stena Line ferries arrive and a large container ship pass on through the Irish
Sea. The worst of the rain cleared enough for us to make out these views but
the wind arrived as forecasted.
We headed north again, still following the A2 aka the
Causeway Coastal route, enjoying the rural scenes across the narrow stretch of
Larne Lough and discovering our error about the Ballylumford power station.
According to the weather forecast, Storm Helene is about to
arrive with 70 mph winds tonight. West Wales will bear the brunt of it, but I
am sure we will not miss out on the fun. I am just glad we have decided to
relocate later than usual tomorrow, our Belfast camp not welcoming arrivals
before 2 pm. Towing caravans and high force winds do not go hand in hand.
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