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Published: June 26th 2015
Another rainy day at Garron Point but I'm keeping our little wood stove going to keep the cottage nice and cozy. It did stop raining for a while so we went for a walk out of our back door and climbed around on the shoreline rocks during low tide. There's a little park next to us with a few signs explaining the history of the area and our cottage. These four cottages were built around 1850 and were originally coastguard cottages associated with a lookout station on Garron Point.
Within a short time, it was raining again so we headed back inside to dry off for a while. Later in the afternoon it cleared up a bit again so we decided to head off walking north along Garron Road to see what we could find. We were particularly interested in finding a neighbour about half a mile away who apparently sells eggs.
The first thing we had to keep in mind was to walk on the RIGHT side of the road as they drive on the left here. This little winding shore road has NO shoulder and NOWHERE to step off when cars come by so it felt EXTREMELY
dangerous. But we managed to avoid death and made it to the neighbour's for eggs, but, they weren't home. Maybe tomorrow. 😞
Another sign in the little park next to us explains that this coast road, from Larne to Ballycastle, is part of a National Cycle Network; "...a comprehensive route of safe and attractive routes to cycle and walk...". We managed to walk a little further along sheer cliffs along one side of the road, dropping rocks all over the place (wished I had a hard hat)and a steep drop off into the ocean on the other side. Cars, trucks and buses flew by us and all gave us a strange look as if to say "What in the world are you doing walking here?!?!?!". But again, we avoided death and found a few interesting photo opportunities.
About 300 metres north of our cottage there is a huge stone along the edge of the road, known as the "Famine Stone". It was somehow placed there in the 1800's by Lady Londonderry, the original owner of this property. She considered herself to be a great benefactress of the Irish during famine times however, the locals apparently did not share
this point of view and have vandalized it somewhat. After a few photos, we managed to make it back safely to the cottage just in time before the rain started again.
We're quite enjoying just staying indoors here although there are apparently a number of really nice hiking trails with great views or historical points of interest. Maybe tomorrow. On the 29th we're off to Scotland for a couple nights in Glasgow and touring around the highlands. Then after we return here, we're heading out to Ballycastle, Giant's Causeway and Portrush for a night.
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Milton McKinnon
non-member comment
Yep, I have been told it rains, alot
The Irish boys I worked with said that the west coast was the scenic coast. Apparently a mist or rain is common. The dryness of Saskatchewan was a surprise to them.