Downpatrick - Day 1

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Geo: 54.3288, -5.71668

On Monday I set my sails and sat nav for Downpatrick in Northern Ireland. The route took me back through Pettigo, so I waved at McGrath Castle as I drove on by and went back into the UK. It feels very odd to drive accross the border with no checkpoint, passport check, nothing. Just a sign on the side of the road saying Welcome to Northern Ireland. Another weird feeling is when your car is in kilometres, your brain is in kilometres but the speed limits are in miles. They look so slow! The sat nav finally earned its value for me by translating the mph limit to kph. Hopefully no nasty tickets will be coming for me.

I arrived in Downpatrick in time for lunch. I'm staying at a pub which happens to be the second oldest building in town. I'm not sure which building is the oldest, they don't seem to publicise that...maybe it was a brothel. Denvirs (the pub) was established as a Coach Inn in 1642. It is in very good condition, although there is not much room to stable the horses anymore.

After settling in and having some lunch I meandered down the road to the Down County Museum. The museum is located in the "new" Downpatrick Gaol. The new gaol operated between 1796 and 1830. The old gaol no longer exists but it original site is where the local high school is now. I know some of my nieces and nephews will get a kick out of that symmetry. The museum boasts exhibits representing the last 9000 years of history. Although to be honest the first one was about geology (snooze) it was interesting but it didn't really grab me. They had timelines running through the centuries showing major events in Ireland's (mainly northern Ireland) history. Maybe that was the problem. Brief mentions of events without an explanation of what happened or why are not enough. Or maybe I need a tour guide standing there explaining the grisly bits to me.

One section of the gaol was open and I could walk through the cells and see what conditions were like for the prisoners. The last cell had a short film depicting prison life from from the prisoners perspective. However the accents were so strong I only got every second word, no strike that, I got every fifth word. I started analysing the composition of the film instead of the content. Really bad acting, poor sound quality, etc. I don't think I appreciated what they were trying to say. Opps.

It was almost five by the time I was done with the prison, so I made my way back to Denvirs for a couple of quiet drinks. Turns out the accents in the film were genuine. I chatted to a few folk, but mostly I only understood every fifth word.

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