Derry, and...

We spent a night, and a morning, in Derry.  You might have heard of Derry, thanks to these girls.

But there's far more to the city.  It has  a walled section, dating from the 17th century.  Built to protect the property of merchants, the walls have been attacked, but never breached.

St Columba, Irish missionary to Scotland, is the patron saint of Derry.  We stopped into St Columb's church.

If you grew up in the 60s and 70s, you heard about Derry and the Troubles.  It was long, terrible time, that the city is working very hard to remember and forget...all at once. 

Catholic Bogside.

Protestant Derry.  It takes time.  Even still, the name "Londonderry" is an issue.  You will see places where the word "London" is painted over on road signs, and other places where its painted back on.

We stopped into a really fun place, where the chef and staff love their picture taken.  (We were taking a picture of the dinosaur, below, and the hosted misunderstood.  She made them pose.  It was awkward.)

When we left Derry, we headed to the Grianan of Ailech, a hillfort northwest of Derry.  Dating from early Christian Ireland, (4-500AD) the current form is a reconstruction from the 19th century, based on excavations done then.

The views from the hill were amazing, even though it was raining cats and dogs.

Then we headed to Donegal, where we spent the last part of our trip.  Along the way, we saw two iconic Irish views.  One was a peat field; peat had been cut, stacked to dry, and then gathered.

And...sheep.  Always the sheep

Antrim Coast Route, Belfast to Cushendall

We spent the next two days driving along the beautiful, wild Antrim coast.  I had been told its one of the most beautiful coast drives in the world, and, although it was our first, it did not disappoint.

We spent the first morning at the Titanic Belfast exhibit. This was an interesting museum, covering, yes, the Titanic, which was built in Belfast.  The focus, though, was more on the industrial history of Belfast, which was/is known for its linen mills and shipbuilding.  We spent a couple hours on a rainy morning.  Truth be told, this could be an exhibit at a museum anywhere in the world, John said.  It didn't need its own building.  But we did enjoy what we learned.

These posts outline the slips where Titanic, and her sister ship, Olympic, were built.

Titanic was built on the right side of the dock, looking down from this window.

First class cabin.  So many industries were present in Belfast in the first decade of the 20th century; cloth, shipbuilding, woodworking, glass works.  All these drew Harland and Wolff, the company that built her, to Belfast.  Everything they needed was there.

After acquiring coffee, and glimpsing a flying whale,

we headed down the road.

Our next stop was Carrickfergus, a town about 11 miles from Belfast, along the Belfast Lough.  We wanted to see castles, and they had one there.

Carrickfergus Castle was built in 1177 by John de Courcy, (see, I told you we'd talk about him, later) a Norman adventurer knight.  He came north from Dublin, conquered Ulster, and ruled there as a petty king until another adventurer booted him out about 30 years later.  The Castle was a military installation until 1928; more than 800 years of service!

The crane below is part of a project that (kept us from seeing the keep and) uses historical methods (minus the crane) to restore the roof.  I would love to come back and see it.  It made me think of Notre Dame; they're using wood for the roof, here, because that's what would have been used at the time. 

We felt so safe with Godric on the crossbow.

Cannons from the time of George III.  I imagine they were ready to fire on John Paul Jones, who won a naval battle here in the early part of the Revolutionary War.  Or War for Independence, depending on your political stripe.

A view of the Lough.

We got to see more of the Lough further down the road, at The Gobbins.  This is a tourist attraction that involves guided hiking tours along the water.  High above the water, sometimes.  It was fun...in a thrill-seeking sort of way.  And there were puffins! There were all kinds of birds in rookeries along the way.  No seals, or whales, though.

The deceitfully gentle walk down to the path.  Coming back up this thing kicked our butts.

You gotta feel safe on a trail that blocks you from falling.

A rookery.

Yet another spot where the trail seemed so...safe.

But the puffins were comfy!  Except for the one that kept flying.  I think he wanted to escape, but knew he shouldn't leave Mrs Puffin and the Pufflets behind.

This was just one of many picturesque moments.

After the hike, our guide suggested a pub north of us, called the Londonderry Arms.  Its notable in that it was once owned by Sir Winston Churchill, and his picture and some memorabilia hang in the lounge.  The food was good!

A scenic drive took us to our next inn, where we met Casper, the friendly dog, and had a lovely night's rest.

 

Greyabbey

The morning came when we had to leave the Ards Peninsula, but not before investigating Greyabbey.  Greyabbey was founded in 1193 by Affreca, the wife of John de Courcy.  (More about him, later.) Seems she was traveling to Ireland in a storm, and was so grateful to land safely that she decided to build a monastery.  By the late middle ages, it had declined, and was dissolved by Henry VIII.  Later, it was burned by the Irish, and, eventually, granted to an English noble, who re-roofed it and used it as a family church.  It was used until 1778.  Now its an atmospheric ruin.

We stumbled into it the night before, when it was a creepy ruin, and decided to come back in the morning to take pictures.

The nave.  Lining the walls are niches with memorials to Montgomeries gone by.  The Montgomery family has owned these lands for many years,  and many of the memorials were to men and women who served England in some way, dying at sea, or in far-off colonies.  They seem to be cousins to the Montgomery of WWII fame, but I haven't investigated that fully.

The chancel, with tall openings for glass windows.

 A transept.  Like many medieval churches, this was built in the shape of a cross.  In one of these, or in the choir, (we never could differentiate the two) there is an effigy tomb, probably of Affreca herself.  Another effigy, of a man on a horse, is probably in honor of John de Courcy.  (Still more about him later)

 Looking toward the refectory, where the monks ate in silence, except for readings from the Bible and church fathers.  Notice the tall windows.  The chancel also had these, and it is thought that these brothers had a lovely surrounding for worship and daily life. 

Steps down from the monks' quarters.

The chapter house, where the monks met for various reasons.  The carving on that pillar shows that these monks had been well-cared for by Affreca.  (How do we know what is what on this site?  It was a Cistercian monastery, and those were built to a specific plan, all over Europe.  Not all were destroyed by gout-suffering megalomaniac kings, and we can see them, today.)

An Adventure

After we left Strangford Lough, things got very busy. Blogging was hard, because we were tired enough every night that I couldn’t think!  Now we’re sitting, waiting to board our flight home!  But I wanted to tell you about One Irish Adventure.

We were enjoying a whiskey one evening with one of our hosts. I mentioned  I wanted a sheep stick as a souvenir. Because Molly and I herd, I do have a stick which I use, but, like most utilitarian sticks, its a golf club shaft adapted for herding. I wanted something special.

Next thing I knew, we were in the car, heading across Donegal, to meet an elderly gentleman who makes them.

They were all beautiful. Before I could even think to take pictures, we had negotiated a lovely purchase and were listening to him play on his guitar. It was really lovely, and, now, I have a stick !

 

Strangford Lough, Carrowdore, and Ballywalter

We came to Ireland for a vacation, of course. To relax, have fun, learn about another part of the world.  But one of the things we also came here for, one of the things we wanted to learn about, was John's family.  We spent a nice day and a bit exploring this part of Ireland.  This is the neck of the woods his family came from.

We started out at the Carrowdore Presbyterian Church.  Presbyterians are not a huge part of the Irish population, but they've been there since the late 1500s, and have pretty much stayed Presbyterian since that time. Our drive into Carrowdore, and some houses of the era.

We met Herbie (?) Robinson at the Church, and he let us in, talked to us for a bit, showed us around, and basically told us that that was all he could do.  The minister was not available, and he had all the church records.  But Mr Robinson was willing to take us to Dunover, and to the Whitechurch Cemetery.

The church in Carrowdore.

Dunover is a townland, a land division of Ireland.  John's great-grandfather, Hugh Hamilton, was born in Ballywalter, Dunover, and seeing the farmland around there was pretty amazing.  Hugh's wife, Great-grandmother Jane Robinson, was born in Carrowdore, Ballyrawr, only a few miles away, and we were able to see that, also.  Hugh's brother, Patrick, had a gravestone erected for their mother, Mary Ann Boyd, and we searched high and low for that stone, finally resorting to bothering one of the town workers on the site. He led us right to it.

Driving through Dunover.

 This school building is of that era.

Great-great Grandmother Mary Ann's headstone.

When Herbie left us, he pointed out the home of the minister for the Ballywalter church, and told us to tell him Herbie Robinson sent us.

Minister Graham had no idea who Herbie Robinson was, but gladly spent about an hour with us, showing us around the Ballywalter Presbyterian Church, combing through old records for names we recognized, and razzing us about our Lutheran faith.  In the end, we found nothing about Hugh and Jane, per se.  We did find a marriage registry for Patrick, and it showed that Hugh and Jane were witnesses at his wedding.  We also found a plaque that needs investigating, listing Hugh as a member of the congregation who served in WWI.  We had not heard that about him, yet, and will be checking into it.

A scene from Ballyrawr.

Aaand...the obligatory Irish sheep.