Ireland August 2012 - Day 9 & 10 - Lough Erne car drive, Splash, Claddagh Glen and Home

Day 9

Thursday the 9th of August

Me and the twins are going for a car ride around Lower Lough Erne while the others are away doing their own thing.

Our first stop should have been at the Ferry Terminal to Devenish Island to see if we could get a view of the 12th Century tower. We somehow missed it.

We did however get to the shore at Killadeas. The boats top right in the above collage were moored at the next place we stopped..............

........................Castle Archdale

I'm absolutely thrilled with this place. There's a World War 2 exhibition here.

I also have a connection with this place.

My Uncle David was based here for a short period.

My Uncle David was a Flight Sergeant in the RAF who lost his life in a tragic accident on the 8th of July 1945. He was the flight engineer in a Catalina that crashed into Lake Victoria,Kisumu, Tanganyika.

Although I couldn't see him in any of the pictures on display, I'm sure he'd have known many of the ground crew who were based here.

How unlucky he was to die and the war was over.

We continue our tour going through Kesh and onto Boa Island....

.....where we took the pulley boat over to Lusty Beg Island

It was an interesting short visit, but we didn't spot too much lustiness happening !

On now to Castle Caldwell

Where we enjoyed cooling our feet in the glorious water

This is the Super Slow Motion Video on my camera

I added the sound effects later


After a short visit to Belleek we made our way down to Garrison on Lough Melvin

A short walk from the main road took us through to the waterfalls on the Roogagh river.

We mostly lazed the rest of the day and watched the Olympic games with Nicola Adams, Katie Taylor and Jade Jones's gold medals among the highlights.

To me though, I thought the most impressive of the day was David Rudisha's world record in the 800 metres.

The bars of Blacklion and Belcoo were visited for liquid refreshments that night.

Day 10

Friday the 10th of August

The Cheltenham contingent head down to Dublin Port today 

Me, Sarah and Marie begin the day with a walk round the paths of Corralea.

Sarah takes charge of my camera for some shots.

I have not got the foggiest idea of how she's got that effect on the above picture, but isn't it brilliant !

Is it an Irish Fairy ring ?

A collage of some of Sarah's other pictures.

My four lasses together.

L to R = Marie, Michele, Lynn and Sarah

The next couple of hours were spent in the water.

It's a wonderfully warm day

Callum and Erin.

Charlotte and Jack.

All girls together

The good old self timer get's the whole gang.

There'll be a lot more pictures going on Facebook

Cladagh Glen was where the first goodbyes were said.

I blogged a post on this wonderful glen in November 2010

I get another short video clip

Marie makes airborne water patterns.

So as Phil,Sarah and Marie were heading off, we met Michele, Callum and Erin coming up the glen.

I got a second climb up to the caves.

There are some weird and wonderful rock formations up here...........

.................and a lovely family

I love this picture.

Doesn't Erin resemble an angel

Our last visit this trip is up to Doon (Dunmakeever)

Me and Charlie walk up to the waterfall.

Many's the trout I've enjoyed from that pool over the years.

Jack and Charlotte wave me goodbye (I've not gone yet !)

Thanks for these pictures Marie.

This is the P.McGovern who helped build the Trig Point. Oh sorry ! The Triangulation Station.

It was earlier than I'd previously mentioned . Not the 50's but 1948

Here we are with our hosts at the top of Doon, Helen and John. 

Thanks for all the lovely food, drink and the wonderful Irish welcome.

We'll be back.

Day11

After tidying the cottages and settling the fuel bill we say our goodbyes.

(I'll see some of the family back in Newton Stewart as they're staying overnight)

I've a whole day till my boat, so I'll go via Ballyshannon.

It's a few years since I was up this way in a car, and I'm amazed at the road improvements.

Ballyshannon now has a bypass.

Donegal town was packed.

This is the famous (or infamous) Barnesmore Gap on the main road between Donegal town and Ballybofey

Have a read of some historic accounts including the hanging of three innocent men for sheepstealing here on The Finn Valley Website 

After passing through Ballybofey I head up to Letterkenny............

.........where I do some shopping in Penneys 

I double back to Lifford/ Strabane and make my way over to Claudy where I'll have my lunch

After looking at this memorial statue by Elizabeth McLaughlin and reading the wall plaques to the victims, I had to dry my eyes. I honestly hope we've seen the last of this kind of suffering.

Read James Simmons "Ballad of Claudy" , and see what you feel. 

Dungiven is the last big town I pass through before I get back to the docks at Belfast.

A little further down this wall (inset) reads 'Céad Míle Fáilte' a hundred thousand welcomes.

Thank you again Ireland, we had them.

Long may you be peaceful.

Ireland August 2012 - Day 2 - Mourne

My second day in Mountains of Mourne.

It's a pretty good forecast today.

Good enough for a walk.

(This may be my last post for a while since I don't know the WiFi set up of where I'm going for the rest of my trip. Apologies if I don't get to your pages, but I will catch up once I'm back in Scotland)

Where I'm staying, The Mourne Lodge in Atticall has great amenities for groups.

I think we may get a group of the Wigtownshire Ramblers over here sometime.

Apologies too for the lack of details, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

It's a 3 mile walk in on a stony old drovers track to Lough Shannagh.

There's still cloud on top.

I like this picture

This is the Mourne Wall which stretches for 22 miles across 15 mountains.

This link takes you to Walk NI County Down website where it details all short, medium or long walks.

Watch out though, these were written for mountain goats. This today is 'EASY' (maybe it's just me)

Down below is the Ben Crom Reservoir. I'll mention it again later.

The Miners Hole River. The bridge dates back to 1812

Carn Mountain left of centre was my original plan, but prudence won the day.

Sorry, no time for explanations.

It appears to me that the Mountains of Mourne are one gigantic boulder pile.

This underfoot makes it quite tough. (sorry, I meant easy)

Lough Shannagh and some summits.

Instead of Carn Mountain, I thought I could just scramble up Doan at 594 mtrs or just under 2000 feet.

Wrong !

That looks like snow up on Slievenaglogh, but after zooming in I've decided it's rock.

On my return I bumped into a number of other walkers. A few were from England, but most peop.le I spoke to today were local

Honestly, it did look like bad weather was coming in. However it failed to materialise and the day got warmer.

Back in my car, I head up to the Spelga Reservoir where I get talking to some fishermen and a few other friendly folk.

There's a brae down to the dam that's the same as Dunure's Electric Brae, but the road is closed, so I couldn't try it out.

I bought my lunch in Hilltown

I ate my lunch with this view.

So I'm going to finish my day with a visit to Silent Valley, a Northern Ireland Water facility.  

There is an entrance fee.

Here's the website link.

Silent Valley

It's certainly beautiful when the sun shines.

Now I mentioned Doan earlier. 

Looking at it from this point (centre of picture), I was further up than I'd realised.

The shuttle bus wasn't running today, I didn't fancy another six miles. 

This is the reservoirs' overflow.

I don't know why they aren't producing electricity from this ?

There's an excellent visitors centre...

....and other stuff to look at.

I thought I'd finish today with some nature

Gorgeous water lilies.

Bye for now.