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The plan for this phase of the trip was to head east from Athlone, work up the coast and eventually arrive in the north – north east to be accurate. In this post we will cover this part of the trip and also pick up on our meandering around the counties of the north east, because it all seems to fit together.
First, however, we should mention that prior to actually driving out of Athlone we had the chance to catch up with a friend from a trip on a truck through Africa back in 2010. Holly and her lad, Enda, made the trek up to meet us from their home an hour or so away. We had a very pleasant time over a long lunch, sharing memories of the big truck trip and catching up on what they, and others from the truck, are up to now. It is always enjoyable to catch up with other travellers and relive experiences. I am sure that there are many times when our tendency to recall a travelling story bores some audiences to tears. This is rarely so with those who have been there, or better yet, were along for the same
This had us confused
Turns out they were saving time and effort. The road was to be closed in the next day or two. ride.
We decided to work our way east along the shores of Lough Ree, still part of the Shannon – it is a hard river to get away from – up to the twin villages of Ballyclare and Lanesborough and then over towards Drogheda. We were looking for either New Grange or Knowth. These are ancient sites of early settlement in Ireland during neolithic times. New Grange has been developed more than Knowth with the 'insides' of the mound excavated and made safe for visitors.
Either our GPS or our navigation was a little wanting, causing a little difficulty in actually locating the places. Most of this was caused by our superficial research, I suspect, but we did locate the Bru Boine Visitors Centre after a while. The trick is to look for the Visitors Centre rather than either of the sites. Access to both sites seems to be controlled by the Bru Boine Visitors Centre even though neither site is adjacent to the Centre.
The Bru Boine Visitors Centre, New Grange and Knowth, is a three hour commitment. We didn't have that amount of time so we opted for some of the Visitor Centre and a
Strangford
Seen from the ferry from Portaferry visit to Knowth. New Grange is more popular and is much more developed. You see both sites by taking a bus from the Visitors Centre. The Centre and the sites are well worth the visit. We were most interested in Knowth and enjoyed the information provided and the opportunity to see the place for ourselves and hear some of the interpretations of the site and material located there.
If you had the time and the interest you could also spend time around Slane and the site of the Battle of the Boyne that are both close by. We wouldn't have minded but we had places to go and people to see.
There is a perfectly good expressway that can run you in to Belfast pretty smartly from down around Drogheda. On the other hand, there are roads than can cart you through some country that is beautiful and other country that you migh have heard about in the news over the years. We can recommend the Mourne Coastal Drive that basically works its way around the coast up towards Belfast.
We had a commitment to try to meet up with the sister of a lady we know
from our regular music gathering in Brooloo in southern Queensland. This sister owns a cafe in a place called Killyleagh and her husband owns a pub. there. A better than average reason to make the effort to find the place.
Killyleagh turned out to be a very attractive town in County Down, which is itself a very attractive part of the world. We found both the cafe – the Picnic Cafe – and the Dufferin Arms but neither of the people we were looking for. Both away for the day. The food in the Picnic Cafe was excellent for lunch and the pub was fine.
If you head from Killyleagh down to Strangford you are able to pick up a ferry across the Strangford Lough and then work your way up to Belfast through Portaferry, Portacue and Ballyholbert. The Drive takes you past the road to Point Burr, the easternmost point of the island of Ireland.
The drive takes you through fairly typical Irish villages that are as picturesque as you will find. There seemed to us to be a definite feel of prosperity in the villages. Perhaps we were used to seeing places possibly affected by
the collapse of the Celtic Tiger times.
We did note some differences though with villages in other parts that we have visited. The most noticeable is that here in the the North there is an abundant use of flags. Union Jacks, some of them very large, were everywhere along with the Northern Ireland flag. The commemoration of the Battle of the Somme had generated the need to festoon most towns and villages with flags that related to that battle. Some of the others probably had to do with the Euro 2016 competition where Northern Ireland was represented and others may also have had to do with sport but a pole, or large stick, without a flag in some villages and towns looked decidedly lonely.
We could easily be wrong but there seemed to be fewer pubs in evidence in many of the Northern villages and towns than in similar sized places in the southern and western part of the island and there seemed to be a lot of villages of a reasonable size without a pub at all. Our impression is that this isn't the case in most villages in the other part of Ireland. There were also
rather more of the evangelical type of churches in evidence in the villages. I guess it is just possible that there is a relationship between the two.
As you approach Belfast on the Mourne Coastal Route you begin passing the houses of some apparently very well off people. Large, very well kept acreages with substantial buildings. Perhaps old money but certainly this part of Northern Ireland at least shows the signs of long-standing , high levels of prosperity for at least a proportion of the population.
The other way into Belfast is to take the western circuit through Newry, Armagh and Cookstown, coming in eventually on the coast road, or the motorway. The drive is interesting and the country is lovely. Much more like the rest of the island really. Not quite as scenic for us as the coast road but still good to drive through.
We visited Carrickfergus on this road. It is really only a short drive from Belfast – almost a suburb – along a good road. There is an impressive old castle there but of greater interest to us was the Council Chambers. These were built in 1779 (if I recall correctly) and
Public Art Carrickfergus
A mural showing a medieval view of Carrickfergus, with stocks in front of it. on 7 August 1824, when the premises were being used for the Carrickfergus Assizes, a Devon-born ploughman possibly employed on one of the large British plantations – possibly my 4xgreat-grandfather – and a young a milkmaid and butter maker – my 3xgreat-grandmother – were convicted of 'stealing from the person'. This was the usual charge for pickpockets. They were both sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia, never to return to their home country.
George and Ann were pretty lucky really. The statute relating to the offence they were convicted of had been amended 16 years earlier to remove the death penalty, although it also made it easier to obtain a conviction. You apparently no longer needed to establish that the particular item had been stolen from a particular person to obtain a conviction.
We are still pondering how and why George made it to Ireland in the first place. Ploughmen from Devon wouldn't normally have been expected to travel about too much. Military service is a possibility but the more likely scenario is that he was part of the colonisation of this part of Ireland by the British. There was a major 'plantation' in and around Carrickfergus
Another tomb area
Looking over to Dowth from Knowth at around this time that provided a foundation for one of the most powerful families in Ireland. Unfortunately, the status, or existence, of particular ploughmen or milkmaids don't rate a mention in any of the published papers that we have located to date.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Beautiful photo
Nice