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It’s not grim up North in Ireland  MALCOLM
ROGERS pays a visit to the ‘other jurisdiction’
It has never been easier to get to the North of Ireland. George Best
City Airport is served by Flybe, BMI, Air France and Ryanair while Belfast
International Airport’s main carrier, easyJet, is soon to be joined
somewhat controversially by Aer Lingus.
Of course, if you want to be more socially responsible and reduce your
carbon footprint, then the ferry is the way to go.
Oscar Wilde said that the road to Tara leads through Holyhead and the
way North goes through the same Welsh town.
Take the Holyhead/Dublin crossing then head up the new Dublin Port tunnel.
The tunnel connects directly in around a six-minute drive with the M1
between Dublin and Belfast (104 miles).
It’s not motorway all the way but all the major bottlenecks are
now by-passed.
En-route you’ll have access to some of the North’s world-beating
beauty spots including the Mountains of Mourne sweeping down to the sea;
the geological wonder of Slieve Gullion in Armagh, Downpatrick where St.
Patrick is buried; Strangford Lough, the largest inland sea in these
islands; and Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in Britain or
Ireland and much, much more.
Co. Armagh
Armagh city is the centre of Catholic Ireland, indeed the centre of Christian
Ireland, with two cathedrals each called St. Patrick’s.
It has been a destination for travellers from all over Europe since the
6th century and now with peace reigning from Crossmaglen to Cullybackey,
Armagh’s many charms are once again attracting visitors, pilgrims
and tourists.
From its ancient ecclesiastic capital to the apple orchards round Loughgall
and from Benburb Valley to Slieve Gullion’s heights this is a grade
A holiday destination.
They’ve been growing apples here in Armagh for the last 3,000 years.
Today the main crop is the Bramley probably Co. Armagh’s most famous
export to the world, aside from the penalty kick (invented here in 1890
by William McCrum).
For Apple Blossom Tours call 028 3755 1119, Mobile: 07740 511 442 or e-mail:
info@armaghguidedtours.com
The Ring of Gullion is a text book example of a ‘ring dyke’
system when Ireland’s share of molten lava was cooling down a few
million years ago a little bit plopped up just like boiling custard but
didn’t plop down again.
The Armagh Planetarium, on the other hand, will tell you and the kids
how extra-terrestrial events have shaped our world.
The history of Armagh can be traced in the Trian Visitor Complex in English
Street in Armagh City everything from St. Patrick to Gulliver’s
Travels (Jonathan Swift was dean here) is explained. www.visitarmagh.com
Armagh can be an ethereal place; it can also be an edgy place.
It is a land of legend, beautiful pastoral landscape and in-your-face
history stretching back to the ancient Ulster sagas.
Co. Down
In 432AD St. Patrick came ashore where the Slaney River flows into Strangford
Lough.
He began his mission to convert the Celtic Irish to Christianity nearby
in the rolling hills of Saul.
A simple church now stands on the site of the barn where he first preached.
Three miles away the Apostle of Ireland takes his eternal rest in the
cemetery of Down Cathedral.
Even without its reminders of St. Patrick, Strangford Lough would be a
stunning holiday destination.
The northern Lough is quiet and sheltered ideal for swimming and boating
while the southern is wild and dramatic.
At Cloghy Rocks you can perch at low tide with the seal pups playing beneath
you.
Or picnic at Kilclief Castle where you can pitch camp amongst the unfeasibly
large white daisies in the shelter of a sandy cove.
First however head for Finnebrogue Estate, Killyleagh Road, Downpatrick,
tel 028 4461 7525, to load up with what is generally reckoned to be the
very best venison in these islands.
Alternatively go for the organic sausages or bacon.
While you’re in the neighbourhood you should stock up with fruit,
veg and cheese from Churchtown Farm Ballycutler, Downpatrick tel 028 4488
1128.
For the perfect end to the day head for the Dufferin Arms in Killyleagh,
35 High Street, tel 028 4482 1182.
This honeycomb of snugs, bars, nooks and crannies features traditional
music every weekend and terrific bar snacks with chips made from local
Comber potatoes the very best in the world.
You’ll want a day in the Mournes.
En-route you’ll need to stock-up again.
The Mourne Seafood Bar and Shop www.mourneseafood.com will sell you a
local pot for a fiver or lobster and langoustines if you’re financially
secure.
A splash on the sands or a traipse through Murlough Nature Reserve on
the shores of Dundrum Bay with a few salmon sambos for company are just
the thing to set you up for the rest of the day.
For dinner on the way home the Buck’s Head in Dundrum serves sensational
local food, and if the weather is mild enough you can eat in their walled
garden tel 028 4375 1868. Booking is advisable.
Co. Tyrone
Tyrone is one of the most under-rated holiday destinations in Ireland
if not Europe.
Walking, fishing, golfing, poetry, literature and song are amongst the
county’s checklist set against a backdrop of history which is both
lengthy (back to Megalithic times) and terrible, even up to recent times.
Any tour of Tyrone eventually leads to the north of the county and the
very heart of the Sperrins, which straddle the Tyrone-Derry border, stretching
some 35 miles from north west to south east.
The mounains are a truly unspoilt paradise of gentle ridges and winding
valleys.
On Bank Holiday weekends you’ll often hear that the Pennine Way
is closed to walkers because the National Park is full-up.
Those who have now discovered the uplands of Tyrone look across the Irish
Sea and wryly smile to themselves.
If you meet half-a-dozen other walkers here it would be a busy day.
And if you want to meet some local walkers head for the Strolls in the
Sperrins Hillwalking Weekend, Saturday, September 8 and Sunday, September
9.
Contact the Cookstown Tourist Information Centre 028 8676 9949 e-mail
tic@cooktown.gov.uk
The Sperrin rivers and loughs are renowned for their angling, while cycling
and horse riding are also excellent diversions in the leafy, quiet boreens
of this rural fastness.
To get a grip on the history of the area, halfway between Omagh town and
Newtownstewart you’ll find the Ulster American Folk Park which tells
the story of emigration to the New World. From Omagh to Omaha, as it were.
The park is centred round the restored farmhouse of Thomas Mellon who
left Tyrone in 1818 and eventually founded the Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh.
Even by Tyrone standards that’s going some.
You’ve just got time to book yourself in for the 16th Appalachian
& Bluegrass Music Festival, Friday, August 31 to Sunday, September
2. Musicians and dancers from all over the Old World and the New World
will be performing. Tel 028 8224 3292.
For further elucidation on Tyrone’s culture, stop off at An Creagan
(Creggan) Visitor Centre on the main Cookstown to Omagh Road, about three
miles from Drumlister (tel: 028 8076 1112).
Within a five-mile radius of An Creagan stand some 44 prehistoric monuments
which date back some 6,000 years give or take six months or so.
The people who built these intricate structures would have regarded the
pyramids (about 4,000 years old) as new-fangled.
From Friday, October 12 until Sunday, October 14 An Creagan will be
holding its annual Feile An Fhomair of Traditional Irish Folk, with concerts,
workshops, sessions and set dancing.
Co. Derry
Derry’s attractions include some of the finest coastlines in Ireland
the world’s most northerly Catholic city, two Nobel prize
winners and the biggest Halloween festival on the planet.
Derry City has transformed itself this last decade or so with edgy art
galleries, innovative museums, contemporary restaurants and buzzing pubs.
The city’s night-life is mainly centred around the Waterloo Street
area.
The steep street is lined with various pubs, Irish traditional and modern.
But before heading for the craic, you are duty bounden to take a stroll
round the 17th century city walls.
Derry is the only completely walled city in these islands and one of the
finest in Europe.
These stone bastions have seen terrible events ranging from the Siege
of Derry which lasted 105 days to Bloody Sunday whose
enquiry continues to this day.
Several walking tours of the city are available but the Derry Visitor
and Convention Bureau’s historical ramble could scarcely be bettered.
The Bureau is at 44 Foyle Street, Derry tel 028 7126 7284 www.derryvisitor.com.
The price of £6 includes entrance into the magnificent St. Columb’s
Cathedral.
Out in the country, Derry has plenty to offer.
Bushmills is a must-see the distillery here is the oldest in the
world.
The whiskey is distilled three times that’s once more than
Scotch. Tel 028 2073 1521, www.bushmills.com.
You can have a drink at the distillery but for something more substantial
or for an overnight stay book yourself in at the Bushmills Inn, Dunluce
Road 028 2073 3000.
Full of character and craic, this 18th century hostelry features turf
fires, oil lamps, grand staircase and circular library.
The next morning head out of town along the B66 towards Derrykeighan.
About three miles up the road look out for the Traill monument, built
circa 1833. This set of stones will appear to swell and contract before
your very eyes.
No, it’s not the drink. It is due to an obscure law of physics
the one which deals with the human eye simplifying differing orientations
resulting in this strange optical illusion.
Your other essential port-of-call is Limavady, a small town beautifully
set in the Glenroe Valley and surrounded by mountainous horizons, notably
Binevenagh rising some 1260 ft above Lough Foyle.
The town is associated with the Thackeray poem Peg Of Limavady but it
is the presence of Miss Jane Ross’ house who is buried in
the Church of Ireland cemetery in the centre of the town which
makes this a de rigeur destination.
Because Miss Ross, a piano teacher, along with a blind fiddler (whose
name is not known for certain) combined together in a project to preserve
one of the best known melodies in the world Danny Boy.
Go along and pay your respects to both musicians. Even better, head for
the Roe Valley Folk Festival, Friday, October 26 and Sunday, October 28.
Details call 028 7774 0107.
Co. Fermanagh
Belle Isle Castle sounds as if it should be in the Mediterranean but is
in fact a 17th century Anglo-Irish pile on its own island, in a lough
stuffed with fish.
This is one of the most radiantly beautiful parts of Ireland, near Lisbellaw
in Co. Fermanagh.
If you don’t want to fish, then shoot and stalk or simply hire a
boat and strike out for the surrounding lakes and neighbouring islands
there are 450 acres of private land to wander through.
The attached Belle Isle Cookery School runs courses which last from one
day to a four-week stint. Tel 028 6638 7231
No part of Fermanagh is far from the water and you can enjoy the scenery
at the helm of a luxurious holiday cruiser, watching the lough-land countryside
gently slip by as you sip from a mug of freshly-brewed coffee
or perhaps something a little stronger on the gentlest waterways
in Europe. (Visit www.a1.ie for details of operators offering holidays
on the Erne waterways.)
In the slowly undulating countryside, cycling is a pleasure.
The Kingfisher Trail, a 230-mile cycle route that takes you through Fermanagh
and four neighbouring counties, is a figure of eight route utilising the
area’s quietest roads.
And if you don’t fancy lugging your luggage round Ireland, Irish
Cycling Safaris (00 353 1 260 0749) will carry it for you.
For historical context, head-out to the border and the towns of Belcoo
(Fermanagh) and Blacklion (Cavan).
You’ll get an idea of what life in a border town must have been
like just a short decade ago.
Today there are few manifestations of the frontier between the two jurisdictions
you’ll pick-up few in-your-face clues as to the fact that
you’ve left one international jurisdiction and entered another.
The army has gone, the customs posts disappeared, the RUC lookout tower
demolished.
There’s more of a border between Wales and England.
Or even between Surrey and Sussex.
But between Belcoo and Blacklion there are far deeper, subtle differences.
Like different currencies (although the red telephone box in the North
does take euros), different speed limits, different coloured post offices
and different war memorials.
Stand and wonder at this madness, in an area with barely enough people
to fill a telephone directory.
Co. Antrim
The route along Ireland’s north eastern seaboard, the Causeway Coastal
Road aka the Antrim Coast Road, was within living memory little more than
a rough track bedded with basalt and chalk chips and pitted with potholes.
Today it is reckoned to be one of the most spectacular roads in the world,
in the same company as the San Bernardino Pass or the Monterey-Carmel
coast road in California.
Parts of this road barely need any mention.
The Giant’s Causeway, for centuries a geological wonder known only
to kelp gatherers and sheep herders, is rightly famous throughout the
world.
Likewise the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.
The Causeway Visitor Centre is open all year round, tel 028 2073 1855.
Near the end of the Coast Road stands the town of Portrush, a traditional
seaside resort with miles of sandy coastline and plenty of tasty seafood.
For maximisation of the latter, stop off at Restaurant 55North, 1 Causeway
Street. Admire the view as you tuck into Angus burger or crispy duck comfit.
Tel 028 7082 2811 www.55-north.com
For clubbing, head for Kelly’s, Bushmills Road, just about the most
famous venue in the North.
Down the road is Ballycastle, home of one of Ireland’s oldest shindigs,
the Ould Lammas Fair.
You’ve just about time to load up the car and head north
it’s this weekend.
The Antrim Coast Road is dotted with some of the most striking villages
in Ireland. Glenarm is the oldest, with streets such as The Vennel and
Toberwine Street running down to the harbour.
Glenarm Castle is the residence of the Earl of Antrim, 13th descendant
of the rebel Sorley Boy MacDonnell.
For all the world the castle looks like the Tower of London, plonked down
in the middle of the Glens of Antrim.
Carnlough is at the foot of Glencloy and while an indisputably Irish village,
it retains the air of a 1950s British seaside resort.
And very attractive the mixture is, with more ice cream shops, a fantastic
hotel (despite its unfortunate name the Londonderry Arms) ideal for afternoon
tea and a harbour so picturesque it could have starred in Finian’s
Rainbow.
Cushendall is sometimes called ‘the capital of the glens’,
and as befits any capital, the village comes equipped with an architectural
curio.
Right in the centre of the village is the four-storey red sandstone Curfew
Tower locally rumoured to be a copy of one in China built
by a rich landowner Francis Turnly.
Of more immediate interest in Cushendall is a thriving centre for traditional
music which hosts several festivals, fleadhs and sessions every year.
Towards Ballintoy Harbour the limestone and basalt cliffs rise out of
the sea.
From here you’ll get terrific views across White Park Bay to Sheep
Island. Scotland, only 12 miles away, merely looks like a small island.
Irish Ferries operates sailings direct into Dublin port from Holyhead,
with crossings either on the Dublin Swift crossing time one hour 49 minutes
or the world’s largest car ferry, the Ulysses, which makes the journey
in three hours, 15 minutes. Fares start from £69 for car and driver
including all taxes and fuel charges. 08705 17 17 17, ww.irishferries.com
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