Northern Ireland - Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 06:57 AM

The City Walls Of Derry

The most visibly striking historic feature of the city is the historic walls. It is the only remaining completely walled City in Ireland and one of the finest examples of Walled Cities in Europe and they have been kept in a splendid state of preservation. The Walls were built by The Honourable The Irish Society as defences for early seventeenth century settlers from England and Scotland - the settlement was a plan of Plantation by James I. The building of the city was financed by the trade Guilds of the City of London and work began in 1613 and finished in 1618 under the supervision of Sir Edward Doddington of Dungiven. The prefix London was thus added to the name of the city and the city of Londonderry became the jewel in the crown of the Ulster Plantations. The Walls which are approximately 1.5km in circumference form a walkway around the inner city and provide a unique promenade to view the layout of the original town which still preserves its Rennaissance style street plan to this day. The four original gates Shipquay, Ferryquay, Bishop and Butcher gates have all been rebuilt and three new gates added â€“ Magazine, Castle and New Gate. There are canon mounted throughout the Walls most notably above Shipquay Gate. These were donated by the Guilds of London in 1649.Guided tours available all year round.

Opening timesOpen to the public from dawn until dusk.
Free access all year round.
Guided tours available all year round.
PricesAdmission Free

Ulster American Folk Park

Northern Ireland Visitor Attraction this is an outdoor museum of emigration which tells the story of millions of people who emigrated from these shores throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The Old World and New World layout of the Park illustrates the various aspects of emigrant life on both sides of the Atlantic. Traditional thatched buildings, American log houses and a full-scale replica emigrant ship and the dockside gallery help to bring a bygone era back to life. Costumed demonstrators go about their everyday tasks in a traditional manner in authentically furnished buildings. Visitors are able to taste traditional fayre and see demonstrations on traditional Irish and American crafts and agriculture including spinning, printing, blacksmithing and textiles. The museum also includes an indoor ‘Emigrants’ Exhibition and includes a Centre for Migration Studies/library which is accessible to all visitors. A full programme of special events is organised throughout the year including the award winning annual Appalachian & Bluegrass Music Festival (first weekend in September) and the ever popular Hallowe’en Festival.

Opening timesOpen Easter-Sept: Mon-Sat 10.30am - 6.00pm, Sun/Public Hols 11.00am - 6.30pm; Oct-Easter: Mon-Fri 10.30am – 5.00pm,
closed w/ends/Public Hols (ex St. Patrick’s Day).
Last admission 1 hour 30min before closing.
PricesAdult £4.50/€7 Conc. £2.50/€4
Children 4 and under: Free
2 adult Family ticket (2 adults & up to 3 children) £11.50; 1 adult Family ticket (1 adult & up to 3 children) £9.00

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:00 AM

Carrickfergus Castle

Started 1180 by John de Courcy, conqueror of east Ulster, and garrisoned until 1928, this is a striking feature of the landscape from land, sea and air. Carrickfergus Castle greets all visitors with its strength and menace. It represents over 800 years of military might. Besieged in turn by the Scots, Irish, English and French, the Castle saw action right up to World War II.

Exhibition on the castle’s history, audio-visual.
Shop.
Wheelchair access limited.

Unaccompanied children under 16 cannot be admitted.

PricesPrice £3, child/SC £1.50, family £8.
Children under 4 years old free.Opening timesOpen April-Sept: Mon-Sat 10 am-6 pm; Sun (April-May, Sept) 2-6 pm, Sun (June-Aug) noon-6 pm;
Oct-March: Mon-Sat 10 am-4 pm, Sun 2-4 pm.
Last admission 30 mins beforeclosing.
Rowallane Garden

Noted for its magnificent rhododendrons and azaleas, rare trees, shrubs and plants.
The house on the estate is the National Trust's headquarters in Northern Ireland. The house was inherited in 1903 by Hugh Armitage Moore, a distinguished plantsman who spent the next half-century creating and working in the 50 acre garden. Two hundred feet above sea level, the garden is encircled by a windbreak of Australian laurels, hollies, pines and beech trees.

Disabled parking
2 manual wheelchairs available (booking essential).
Tearoom ring for opening times.

Opening timesOpen 16 April-18 Sept 10am-8pm daily. 19 Sept-14 April (2006): 10am-4pm daily. Closed 25 & 26 Dec and 1 Jan.
Entrance charge. Tel: (028) 9751 0131.
Email: rowallane@nationaltrust.org.uk
www.ntni.org.uk

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:01 AM

This is a land of blue mountains and forest parks, mazy lakes and windswept moors, white Atlantic sands, an inland sea. In fact, it's a country that is just pretending to be small.

Dozens of small towns are hidden away down among the green places of the countryside, and fishing villages string out along the shores. The towers and steeples of parish churches mark the high ground beyond trimmed hedgerows. The country's turbulent past, which still resonates today, has also helped shape the landscape.

Distinctive field patterns, for instance, are especially striking, and so are ruined castles. Built from the 12th century onwards, and once symbols of both oppression and reassurance, they are now among Ulster's finest architectural treasures.

Driving in Northern Ireland is to recapture motoring's glad confident morning. The roads are excellent, with miles of motorway and dual carriageway, and you are never much more than half an hour from the sea. Minor roads are well signposted and there are convenient places for picnics and sites for caravanning or pitching a tent. The only traffic jams are flocks of sheep or cattle changing fields. In the summer you may have to pull over occasionally to let the music-makers pass, with their pipes and brilliant banners, marching to a festival in town.

The weather can be fickle but the rain keeps the land a magical emerald green and, when the wind blows the clouds away to sea, the sky like the mountains is blue. The air is clean - and so sweet that you will want to open the car windows to let the breezes in.

Because Northern Ireland is only 5,500 square miles in area - about the size of Yorkshire or Connecticut - you can see most of the main attractions in a week without clocking up more than 500 miles.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:02 AM

Unless you approach Belfast from the sea you cannot help but come upon the city suddenly because of its fine setting: a 'Hibernian Rio' as one writer has called it, ringed by high hills, sea lough and river valley. A village in the 17th century, this robust northern metropolis of nearly half a million people - a third of Northern Ireland's population - has much in common with Liverpool and Manchester, those breezy cities across the Irish Sea. Belfast was the engine-room that drove the whirring wheels of the industrial revolution in Ulster. The development of industries like linen, rope-making and shipbuilding doubled the size of the town every ten years. The world's largest dry dock is here and the shipyard's giant cranes tower over the port.

Today the city and the river front are again being transformed. Much of the city centre is now pleasantly pedestrianized, with benches where you can sit and listen to the street musicians.

There are many exuberant Victorian and Edwardian buildings with elaborate sculptures over doors and windows. Stone-carved heads of gods and poets, scientists, kings and queens peer down from the high ledges of banks and old linen warehouses.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:03 AM

Derry is one of the longest continuously inhabited places in Ireland. The earliest historical references date to the sixth century A.D. when a monastery was founded there, but for thousands of years before that people had been living in the vicinity. These 'prehistoric' people left traces of their existence in the various archaeological sites and objects which often come to light in this area.

The name Derry derives from the old Irish word Daire meaning an oak grove, particularly an oak grove on an island totally or partly surrounded by water or peat bog. Such was the case at Derry. The original oak grove which gave its name to the city and the various settlements which followed it, were all located in turn on a small hill which was formerly an island in the River Foyle. The channel which swept past the western side of that island gradually dried out leaving a marshy, boggy area. In time this area became known as the Bogside. It is now one of the best known areas of the city.

Oak groves were sacred places for the Celtic peoples who once lived over most of Western Europe. 'Oak' placenames occur frequently throughout the continent, as well as in Britain and Ireland. This reflects both the widespread nature of the ancient oak forests, and also the important position these trees occupied in the culture and ceremonial of the Celts. Derry was almost certainly one of those Celtic ritual places. The taboos and superstitions about the trees of Derry, which survived down to the sixteenth century, clearly hint at the pre-Christian religious significance of this island hill.

In the sixth century A.D. a Christian monastery was founded on the hill of Derry. The site was allegedly granted by a local king who had a fortress there. A similar kind of fortress can be seen at the spectacular Grianan of Aileach, a few miles west of the city and now in County Donegal. According to legend the monastery of Derry was established by the great Irish saint Colmcille/Columba (521-597). Colmcille founded many important monasteries in Ireland and Britain, including Durrow in the Irish midlands and Iona on an island off the west of Scotland. The claim that he founded Derry is less certain, although that monastery definitely belonged to the federation of Columban churches which looked to Colmcille as their spiritual founder and leader. The monastery of Derry would have been quite small at the beginning. The location of the first church was probably where the beautiful little Church of Ireland Chapel of St Augustine stands today. During the later middle ages the old monastery of Derry evolved into an Augustinian congregation. The church of that monastery survived up to the seventeenth century and was used, as their first place of worship, by the London colonists who came here to build the walled city.

St Columba's 'Long Tower' is another very important Derry church. It was the first Catholic church erected in the city after the momentous events of the reformation and plantation. It is decorated in a brilliant neo-Renaissance style. Built originally in 1784, St Columba's occupies the precincts of another of Derryls famous medieval churches the Tempull Mor or Great Church. This was built in the 1160's at a time when a reasonably large township had grown up around the ancient monastery. The Tempull Mor served as the cathedral of the Diocese of Derry throughout the middle ages. Like the distinctively Irish round tower of the same period (hence 'Long Tower'), which stood nearby, all traces of the Tempull Mor disappeared in the seventeenth century.

Although the Vikings certainly sailed up the loughs and rivers of this area, the monastery of Derry escaped the worst effects of their raids. Derry's medieval heydays were in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries when the local Mac Lochlainn dynasty moved into the settlement. Under their patronage, Derry prospered: the population grew; the monastery and its school thrived; and prestigious buildings were erected. With the decline of the Mac Lochlainns, some of whom claimed to be kings of all Ireland, Derry also sank into unimportance.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:03 AM

The famous skeleton on the city's coat-of-arms is said to depict the association with another aristocratic family, the Norman de Burgos, who built their great fortress at Greencastle at the entrance to Lough Foyle. They briefly owned part of Derry in the early fourteenth century and may well have been planning to build a new town there. Instead, the settlement declined in significance. When the local O'Doherty family built a castle in Derry for their overlords the O'Donnells, probably around 1500, it may well have been thought that a new beginning was about to be made. The recently-built O'Doherty Tower is a modern attempt to commemorate that medieval association.

Throughout the second half of the sixteenth century, Queen Elizabeth I's military leaders tried to conquer the province of Ulster, the only part of Ireland still outside English control. The English first came to Derry in 1566 but the garrison established there at that time lasted only a few years. A second, more successful garrison returned in 1600 during the 'Nine Years War' against the Gaelic O'Neill and O'Donnell earls. On this occasion the English managed to hold on to Derry and, when the war came to an end in 1603, a small trading settlement was established and given the legal status of city. In 1608 this 'infant city' was attacked by Sir Cahir O'Doherty (a previous supporter of the English in Ulster), and the settlement was virtually wiped out.

This attack came about shortly after the so-called 'flight of the earls' when the O'Neill and O'Donnell chieftains, together with their principal supporters, fled to the continent, leaving Gaelic Ulster leaderless. The new king in London, James I, decided on a revolutionary plan designed once and for all to subordinate Ulster. The 'Plantations in Ulster' required the colonising of the area by loyal English and Scottish migrants who were to be predominantly Protestant in religion, unlike the Catholic Irish. One part of this colonisation was to be organized by the ancient and wealthy trades' guilds of London. The new county granted to the Londoners and its fortified city, built on the site of the recently destroyed settlement, were renamed Londonderry in honour of this association . The city of Londonderry was the jewel in the crown of the Ulster plantations. It was laid out according to the best contemporary principles of townplanning, imported from the continent (the original street lay-out has survived to the present almost intact). More importantly, the city was enclosed by massive stone and earthen fortifications Derry was the last walled city built in Ireland and the only city on the island whose ancient walls survive complete. Among the city's new buildings was St. Columb's Cathedral (1633). This is one of the most important seventeenth century buildings in the country and was the first specifically Protestant cathedral erected in these islands following the Reformation.

The new city was slow to prosper. By the 1680's it still had only about 2,000 inhabitants; and yet it was, by far, the largest town in Ulster. Along with most parts of Britain and Ireland, the city suffered from the upheavals in the 1640's. In 1649 the city and its garrison, which supported the 'republican' Parliament in London, were besieged by Presbyterian forces loyal to the King. Among its most famous citizens in the second half of the seventeenth century was George Farquhar, one of the so-called Restoration dramatists.

On April 18 1689, James came to Derry and summoned the city to surrender. The King was rebuffed and actually fired at by some of the more determined defenders. As a policy ot no surrender' was confirmed, the Jacobite forces outside the city began the famous Siege of Derry. For 105 days the city suffered appalling conditions as cannonballs and mortar-bombs rained down, and famine and disease took their terrible toll. Conditions for the besiegers were no better and many thousands of people died, both inside and outside the walls. The cannons used to defend the city can be seen on the walls and at other places around the city. Finally at the end of July, a relief ship broke the barricading 'boom' which had been stretched across the river, near where the new Foyle Bridge now stands. The Siege was over but it has left its mark on the traditions of the city to the present day.

The city was rebuilt in the eighteenth century with many of its fine Georgian style houses still surviving. George Berkeley, Ireland's most important philosopher, was Dean of Derry (1724-33), and another well-known and eccentric cleric, Frederick Augustus Hervey, the Earl of Bristol, was Bishop of Derry (1768-1803). It was Hervey, the so-called Earl Bishop, who was responsible for building the city's first bridge across the Foyle in 1790. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the port of Derry became an important embarkation point for Irish emigrants setting out for America. Some of these founded the colonies of Derry and Londonderry in the state of New Hampshire. By the middle of the nineteenth century a thriving shirt and collarmaking industry had been established here, giving the city many of its fine industrial buildings. Four separate railway networks emanated from the city, the interesting history of which can be examined at the Foyle Valley Railway Centre.

In 1921, with the partition of Ireland, Derry unexpectedly became a border city. Amelia Earhart gave the city a much needed boost when she landed here in 1932 becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Her connection with the city is reflected in a display at the Amelia Earhart Cottage at Ballyarnett. In more recent times the city has become known worldwide on account of the 'troubles'. Less well-known is its reputation voted by the Civic Trust in London as one of the ten best cities of its kind to live in, in the United Kingdom. Derry is an old, beautiful city, set in a surrounding landscape of unparallelled natural beauty and diversity. It also has an unparallelled wealth of history.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:04 AM

Set on a hill on the banks of the Foyle estuary, strategically close to the open sea, it came under siege and attack for over a thousand years. St Columb came out of Donegal to escape the plague 1,400 years ago and founded his first monastery in the oak grove (Doire in Gaelic), a gift from his cousin, Prince of Aileach. It was a holy place. The saint said that 'the angels of God sang in the glades of Derry and every leaf held its angel.'

You can walk along the great 17th-century walls, about a mile round and 18 feet thick, which withstood several sieges and even today are unbroken and complete, with old cannon still pointing their black noses over the ramparts. The great siege lasted for 105 days.

The modern city preserves the 17th-century layout of four main streets radiating from the Diamond to four gateways - Bishop's Gate, Ferryquay Gate, Shipquay Gate and Butcher's Gate. Historic buildings within the walls include the 1633 Gothic cathedral of St Columb. In the porch is an inscription:

'If stones could speake then London's prayse should sound Who built this church and cittie from the grounde.'

At the time of the plantation of Ulster, the City of London sent master-builders and money to rebuild the ruined medieval town hence the name Londonderry.

Colonel Baker, a governor of the city who died on the 74th day of the siege, shares a memorial in the cathedral with Captain Browning who was killed as his ship Mountjoy broke the boom across the river and relieved the city in July 1689. The chapterhouse displays the keys to the gates that were shut against James II in December 1688.

The Guildhall, looking much like its counterpart in London, is just outside the walls. Its stained glass windows illustrate almost every episode of note in the city's history. The story flows up the staircase and floods all the chambers with brilliant light.

The main thoroughfare, Shipquay Street, is very steep, with narrow little streets running off it and a craft village tucked in behind the O'Doherty tower. From the quay behind the Guildhall hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrants sailed to a new life in the New World.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:04 AM

The popular Armagh game, road bowls, is played only in the leafy lanes round here and in county Cork. The iron bowls weigh 28 ounces and are hurled by the players along a course of several miles in the fewest possible throws. The excitement is contagious - the betting heavy - and spectators have to keep their eye on the bowl as it comes hurtling along the road, cutting corners, or flying over hedges. Armagh men have often won the Irish championships.

Often to be seen is hurley (properly called 'hurling') which looks like the worlds most dangerous game. The sticks are whirled around the players' heads like wooden battle-axes and the ball flies from end to end of the field. Cuchelain, the warrior played this game and it's a great spectator sport.

Navan Fort: a royal fortress

Two miles west of the city is the great mound of Navan Fort, stronghold of the kings of Ulster from 700 BC. It occupies a key place in Heroic Age legend, notably in tales about Cuchulain. Whenever King Conor had a problem with Queen Maeve, the rather fierce ruler of Connaught, Cuchulain came to the rescue. The story is told in the visitor centre. In addition to detailing the mythology of the Ulster Cycle and the techniques used by archaeologists to uncover the fort, Navan Centre explores Celtic culture, rituals and beliefs of pre-Christian Ireland.

The rich fruit growing country to the north-east of Armagh is known as the Orchard of Ireland. Apple Blossom Sunday is in late May when the trees are a mass of pink and white flowers. Many of the 17th-century settlers here came from Worcestershire and they laid out the orchards on the same pattern as those in the Vale of Evesham.

Gosford Forest Park At Markethill, this is the former demesne of Gosford Castle, a mock-Norman battlemented extravaganza. Arboretum, walled garden, two raths, nature trail, a camping and caravan site and Dean Swift's Well and Chair.

Blackwater River Park The Blackwater is one of the best fishing rivers in Ireland, famous for its big bream. The river park extends for 3 miles, opposite Benburb (with ancient castle and priory). There is canoeing over the weirs a deep pool for subaqua training and a fossil-hunting area.

Clare Glen is a beautiful winding river vale of 4 miles, from the pretty village of Tandragee (with castle and golf course) to Clare old bridge and cornmill

Ardress House is a lovely 17th-18th century manor (National Trust) with elegant plasterwork by Michael Stapleton in the drawing room, good furniture and a picture gallery. A magnificent 18th century pink-cobbled working farmyard contains a piggery, blacksmith's shop, chicken houses, and a well in the middle.

The Argory (National Trust). Set in 200 acres of wooded countryside overlooking the Blackwater river, this 1820 neoclassical house contains its original furniture and is lit by its own acetylene gas plant, one of the very few surviving examples in the British Isles.

Camagh Forest is truly natural woodland with fishing lakes, and an anglers' inn. The Fews Forest is wonderful wild walking territory, where roads lead up to picnic sites on the heights of Dead Man's Hill and Carrickatuke and you can hike for miles on forest and moorland tracks.

Seagahan Dam is a large artificial lake partly surrounded by woodland, with a scenic shore drive.

Loughgall is the centre of the apple orchard area and the village where the Orange Order was founded in 1795: the house in the main street in the village has a collection of regalia etc. The former demesne now contains an important horticultural research centre.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:05 AM

The spiritual capital of Ireland for 1,500 years and the seat of both Protestant and Catholic archbishops, Armagh is the most venerated of Irish cities. St Patrick called Armagh 'my sweet hill' and built his stone church on the hill where the Anglican cathedral now stands. On the opposite hill, the twin-spired Catholic cathedral (started in 1840) is flanked by two large marble archbishops who look mildly across town.

Many of the public buildings and the Georgian townhouses along the Mall are the work of Francis Johnston, a native of Armagh, who also left his mark on Georgian Dublin. The builders of Armagh delighted in the warm coloured local limestone that makes the city glow on the dullest day. They called it 'Armagh marble'. The archbishop's palace and the courthouse are good examples.

When it's polished, the slabs of pink and yellow and red limestone are made into doorsteps and pavements - like the glowing pink pavement on the Mall. You will also see plenty of it in the Catholic cathedral.

The present Anglican cathedral is mostly a 19th-century restoration round the 13th-century shell. Thackeray admired the new building when he came this way in 1842, and he specially liked the monuments which then, as now, included ones by Roubiliac, Chantrey, Rysbrack and Nollekens.

'It wants a hundred years at least,' he said, 'to cool the raw colours of the stones, and to dull the brightness of the gilding, all which benefits, no doubt, time will bring to pass...'

Brian Boru, who drove the Norsemen out of Ireland in 1014, is buried in the churchyard. The cathedral library, founded in 1771 by Archbishop Robinson who also built the observatory, has a copy of Gulliver's Travels corrected in Swift's hand, and the Claims of the Innocents (pleas to Oliver Cromwell).

Armagh Planetarium:

Located on the grounds of the 18th century Armagh Observatory in Armagh City, the planetarium has been upgraded for visitors and scientists. An Eartharium, with displays examining the Earth's core, surface and atmosphere, opened last summer. Price: about US$5.60.

Palace Stables:

A heritage center in the stables of Armagh's 1770 palace demesne explores a day in the life of the palace in 1776. Also open to the public is the archbishop's chapel. Price: about US$4.20.

St. Patrick's Trian:

Located in three 18th and 19th century buildings in downtown Armagh, St. Patrick's Trian, named for the city's historic division into three districts. The Armagh Story, with its illustrated wall panels, audiovisual displays, sound effects and narrative explanations, explores the evolution of belief, focusing on ancient times, Patrick's arrival to Armagh, the Viking invasions of Ireland and contemporary society. The land of Lilliput, inspired by the "Gulliver's Travels" of Jonathan Swift, who spent much time in Armagh, features huge models of Gulliver and tiny Lilliputians. Price: about US$4.80.

PagodaSwan · 11-13-2005, 07:06 AM

'Where the Mountains - o' Mourne sweep down to the sea'
- - Percy French

The popular song has made the Mournes the best known mountains in Ireland. Distinctive and self-contained, they are tucked away in the south-east corner of Northern Ireland, with 12 shapely summits rising above 2,000 ft on the eastern side.

The barren peak of Slieve Donard, climbing steeply to 2,796 ft, dominates the mysterious blue distance of the landscape. It's an afternoon's climb from the catpark at Bloody Bridge near the holiday resort of Newcastle. From the top you can see the Isle of Man and the full length of Strangford Lough. To the north-west lies the pale line of Lough Neagh, a vast inland sea covering 153 square miles, famous for its eels, an Ulster delicacy. Hundreds of tons of eels are exported each year.

The coast frorn Newcastle round to Greencastle hamlet was notorious for smuggling in the 18th century. Old coastguard lookout points recall the time when liquor and tobacco, tea, silk and soap were landed by boat from the Isle of Man and spirited away along the Brandy Pad and other smugglers' trails through the mountains. The two big artificial lakes in the Silent Valley that supply Belfast's water are surrounded by a huge dry stone wall over 22 miles long. At Newcastle itself there is yachting and pleasure fishing from the old harbour, golf at Royal County Down, and walks in the sand dunes of Murlough.

For a very scenic drive to Newcastle, visitors coming north on the Dublin-Belfast road should turn east at Newry on to the A2 which runs along the north shore of Carlingsford Lough between the mountains and the sea.