Weds 10th Sept
Before we left Drum Manor Forest Park campsite , we took Millie for a wee walk in the Park and ….
Hurrah!
Today we are exploring the Sperrin Mountains.
When the Lord Deputy of Ireland invited reps of the London guilds to visit in Ulster in 1609 hoping to persuade English settlers to come to the region, he instructed their guides to keep them well away from the Sperrin Mountains- “when it rains they can be dismal” he said. And today it is actually dismal with rain and mist hiding the hills.
We headed off to see the Beaghmore Stone Circles - having seen stone circles in the Orkney’s and the Hebrides we weren’t expecting much but Wow! We were blown away by these prehistoric circles! A collection of 7 circles and many burial cairns over an extensive area ,
Here is a diagram of the site
Expert opinion is divided as to their purpose . Some think their orientation line up with the summer and winter solstices. Recently some astronomers have speculated the layouts may in fact be a representation of comets!
It’s very difficult to show the extent of the area in photo’s - but we’ll try…
This is circle A.
A few more photos.
Can you see our van in the distance below? The only vehicle in the car park. If this was in the south of England there would be a several coaches lined up and a hundred cars.
Standing on a stone (on the perimeter, not a sacred, important stone, obv) to take a photo, Graham found a tupperware container so obviously fished it out. I hope no secrets are being given away here but it was a geocache thingy. It contained not treasure, but a balloon, a clip, orange sponge thing, 2 golf (could be Ikea) pencils and some rotted paper. So if you are in the game I put it carefully back for you to find.
On to The OM Dark Sky Centre as Graham has booked a tour. It’s behind a public access forest park in which was situated, to Carol’s delight, one of the three giant sculptures (for which she was prepared for me to drive 40 minutes to see, so I was delighted too). This is Ceoldán, the Stargazer.
So Graham went to the loo (in the centre) to suss them out and came back thinking it was a Mickey Mouse operation. But we’re here now so here we are.
The tour was actually good. My guide was Clara and she knew her stuff. Clara gave an easy to follow explanation of our solar system and even beyond, what we can see, how to identify it. The relationship between Beaghmore Stones (above) and the stars was explored but actually no-one has a clue. There was a great interactive model of our relationship between the Earth and our Moon showing the different Moon phases and distances from the Earth which I could have played with all day. A concession ticket only cost me £3.10, less than the coffee! By the way, the centre is named OM because that’s the sound the universe makes. Ommmm.
The highlight was the telescope they have there. A powerful 14 inch LX600 Meade telescope, capable of zooming in on stars a very long way away, and tracking them. You didn’t look through it, but it projected onto a computer screen. It was red and very impressive.
WWe then made our way back to Cookstown and down through Armagh, Newry to the Mountains of Mourne. Lord the roads down there are shocking.
Fri 11th Sept
We’re staying in Annalong, at the foot of the Mourne Mountains. To be honest, we didn’t want to stay in Annalong but we forgot it was the weekend and Rostrevor was booked up - these campsites are empty in the week and then over the weekend you can’t get into the nice ones. We forgot and didn’t book early enough. The site is in a lovely position and we have a seaview front row pitch so can’t complain.
Anyway, Annalong is nice, but the Harbour Inn which promised fine seafood overlooking the pretty harbour was shut. Bizarre. The tables were set with wine glasses, cutlery and tablecloths but the entrance was boarded up.
The other attraction, the Old Cornmill was also shut, although it was supposed to be open 2pm to 5pm except on Tuesdays according to the leaflet..
There was a sweet little harbour with a small fleet of working fishing boats of which we saw a couple coming in and out with their catches … hoping they may supply the local fish and chips restaurant opposite the site ,as we’re falling back on that for supper tonight after the Harbour Inn disappointment.
We had a lovely walk in actual sunshine, along the sea front with the sea on our right and the mountains on our left. Warm too.
The village is surrounded by the mountains.
Then Graham jinxed us by putting the outdoor table up for lunch and the clouds returned 😬
Tomorrow we will venture into the mountains ….
Sat 12th Sept
It rained heavily throughout the night with high winds so the calm sea became a bit of a maelstrom this morning. However after a leisurely breakfast the clouds appeared to dissipate enough for us to brave a drive into the Mourne Mountains.
Graham initially wanted to try walk one of the Slieves (Mountains) but they are reported challenging to walk and boggy - and not wanting to wade through bog and mud we decided to visit the Silent Valley Reservoir in the heart of the Mournes.
At the Silent Valley, the Kilkeen River has been dammed to provide water for Belfast. Built between 1923 and 1933 taking a lot more time and money than expected…in fact it nearly bankrupted Belfast. Several lives were lost during the construction. Cost of £1.36m (1930’s), 10 year build, holding 3000 million gallons, with workers walking across the mountains desperate for work, incredibly hard though it was. Later it was deemed insufficient for the needs of Belfast.
On site today is an original house used on site and bought in the 1950’s by a local family where they lived in it and raised children - it has now been transported back to the site to show the housing that existed on site.
Instead of building another dam in the Annalong valley a tunnel over 3.6 kms was dug beneath Slieve Binnian (mountain) to bring water to the valley. They dug the tunnel from both ends, hoping to meet in the middle. In the end they were two inches out. Incredible given the technology at the time. Lastly the Ben Crom dam was built between 1953 and 1957 at the head of the valley. The name Silent Valley is thought to be due to birds and livestock being scared off or removed during construction.
Surrounding the dam are several trails - mostly 2 - 3 km long …. How is it we managed to trek 10km this time again protested Carol?
The views were mostly worth it and we rewarded ourselves with a late lunch at the Tea Rooms - outside of course and thankfully the sun did shine as we ate …. because dogs are not allowed in the Tea Rooms…..
Back in Annalong we finally manage a cuppa outside enjoying a moment .. and it was a moment of sunshine - just…
Millie generally adopts this position in the evenings as back to back days of trekking have taken their toll.
Sun 13th Sept
Before we left Annalong we took a final walk on the coast path to stretch Millie’s paws before another day of travel.
Today not much to see of the Mournes ..
On to Newcastle where we aim to buy more provisions - in this part of the country Sunday opening for supermarkets are 1pm - 6pm. In fact all supermarkets we have visited don’t sell alcohol until 1pm even if they open earlier ….and you have to go through lockable barriers to enter the alcohol aisles making you feel a tad naughty.
We couldn’t find a parking space in Newcastle so found a nearby Lidl with an empty carpark - as we arrived at 12.30 we figured we’d walk a while and return at 1pm to shop.
Newcastle has a lovely promenade where many folk were promenading - we noticed none of the bars appeared open, but there were rows of ice cream parlours and amusement arcades with tons of slot machines being well patronised. We tried to find a souvenir shop to no avail - “so Newcastle’s just ice cream and slots then” observed Carol. Also there was a rather tatty beach but … no dogs allowed unless on a lead … what’s the fun in that thought Millie?
So we headed back to Lidl at a couple of minutes before 1pm and were amazed to see…
A vast queue - this was the back as it snaked round the front of the store and the car park was full! In the store it was rammed …quite claustrophobic and a tad bizarre…. Anyone would think the shops are ONLY open on Sunday afternoon.
On to Dundrum, which was voted best place to live by the Sunday Times 2025 - as long as you don’t live on the High Street where it is impossible to cross the road for traffic. High above Dundrum there is another ruined castle and house - we stopped for a picnic lunch and grabbed a bench with a fab view.
The castle was built soon after 1177 by Sir John de Courcy to control the coastal route from Dublin to Downpatrick. It (as others) changed hands in various wars and fell into disuse after the mid 17th century.
But it is in a great position and you get a good feel of how it would have been in its prime. Also free to visit which amazed us as in England it often costs an arm and a leg just to visit an ancient hilly knoll!
And a view from the top
On to Castle Ward where we will be staying at the Castle’s NT campsite.
A short stop off at a sandy beach at Minerstown (though we didn’t spot a mine) for Millie to have a ball chase, Then a quick photo stop in Ardglass of the castle which was built just after 1430 by a group of London merchants. It is now a golf club and by the looks of it quite a fancy one. This is a LOT more affluent than Minerstown!
Mon 14th Sept
Today we’re exploring Castle Ward, a NT managed site staying at their campsite.
Apparently Castle Ward has 21 miles of trails !
We set off late morning after egg on toast to discover the castle - walking along a trail that hugged Strangford Lough. After a fair walk we came upon the tower and an attached farmyard ( overgrown) . This tower was Winterfell in the Game of Thrones series, and was the original Castle Ward until the big house was built. The clock has no digits but spells the name of the 3rd Viscount’s son William J Ward.
Across from the tower is a sawmill, and the Cornmill where there are millstones, a threshing machine, a tractor, an interesting display of all things mill related. In fact, everything you would need to restart the business. It was sizeable and included the creation of a huge reservoir/lake to provide the water power.
The Cornmill
The mill stones, threshing machine and a nice explanation of how much power the water used to move the mill stones to grind the wheat into flour.
So now we know…
Past the walled garden - now all wall and no garden via a lough side path to the sunken garden.
Which appeared actually to be like a walled garden ..?? .. but was beautiful.
On to the Castle itself - which is really interesting, in 1706 Judge Michael Ward married a wealthy heiress Lady Anne Hamilton and built a new house , now demolished. Their son Bernard built the present mansion in 1762 - 72 . He wanted a classical built Castle but she favoured Gothic architecture … so one side of the Castle was built in a Classical style and the other in a more arty Gothic style. All the rooms in his side the house were classic, as hers were gothic. Carol did the tour of the inside of the house .. Graham and Millie were left outside. All the photos Carol took of the interior apart from one were of the Gothic rooms. Lady Ann had some taste!
Graham prefers the classical side whilst Carol likes the gothic.
Lady Ann’s style was really interesting - here’s the ceiling of her boudoir in the style of a bedouin tent, a window using stained glass bought in a parisian market before the house build.
During later victorian restoration increasing the plasterwork in the entrance the craftsmen ran out of time and ended up grabbing a violin, hats, keys etc and covered them in plaster and fixed them to the wall! A shortcut to making their own ornate plasterwork.
We had lunch in the café and then hit the gift shop. We’ve been trying to buy souvenirs ever since Glenariff where Carol bought a hat and promptly lost it the very next day … Souvenir shops have been lacking throughout our tour .. and we love a souvenir .. only tasteful ones though…
We did go a bit stir crazy in our buying binge but visitors to our home will reap the rewards ….
Another day of many steps ….. we hoped to reward ourselves with a walk into Strangford to a seafood restaurant but the heavens opened and we opted to stay in the van….again.
