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DoChara's Ireland Blog
Random Writings about Ireland and the Irish
Monday
May 22 2006
Discovering another Ireland
I am just back from a 2 week holiday a few days of which I spent happily exploring a part of Ireland I had never visited before, the area around the Ards Peninsula in Co Down.
It's something of a secret this area - known and loved by many who live in Northern Ireland and by a small coterie of regular visitors from the rest of Ireland and the UK, but with few visitors from further afield. It's charm is a quiet one, the scenery is not rugged and dramatic like the North Antrim or Kerry coastlines, but unfolds more gently.
A climb to the top of a hill is rewarded with a huge vista across the lough, its islands and little coastal villages; an inauspicious town turns out to have a perfect pub and a deli selling totally scrumptious food, both with views of a fairytale castle; a walk in the woods leads past beautifully carved wooden animals to the unsignposted and intrigueing ruins of a seaweed bath and what looks like a sort of Tudor sauna.
Killyleagh Castle, Co Down
Everyone we came in contact with was friendly and helpful to an extraordinary degree. A few examples are in order.
The landlady at the guesthouse (the Dufferin Coaching Inn), without prompting, took the time to phone the organisers of a group putting on a presentation about Vikings for a local school to see if my history mad 8 year old could join them (which he happily could).The girl we fell into conversation with while waiting for a ferry who diverted from her own journey to take us on a leisurely walk through a local woodland, the one with the carved animals, which we would never otherwise have found and which was a truly magical place.
It went on like that, the guy in the somewhat eccentric ice-cream/DVD/art/coffee shop who chatted amiably about how much the area was changing, the people in the pub who included us in the conversation around the bar, the two old farmers who, having informed us that we were lost "in the middle of nowhere", put us right with both directions and recommendations as though they had been walking the roads just waiting to advise us.
These people are not jaded by tourists - there were no tour buses and not many other visitors in May at least. I hope that as more people start to discover and visit this lovely place it is not, like so many popular tourist areas, ruined by crowds and by poorly thought out tourist 'facilities'.
I have a feeling it won't be - what came through loud and clear was that the people who live here know they have a little gem and that they intend to take care of it.
Comments on "Discovering another Ireland"
22 June 2006
We noticed with amusement that you went ALL THE WAY to Co Down to end up somewhere that looks... just like Kilkenny :) Although, fair enough, the windmill is a nice touch and I don't remember many of those 'round your way...
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