Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus

We based ourselves at Kyrenia (G) / Girne (T), where we stayed in a holiday villa. It was a nice place, like a NZ motel, and just down the road was a 24 hour supermarket. Unfortunately, it was a long way from the city centre, but at least we could flag down a mini-van- dolmush at the gate.

Northern Cyprus is so different from the Republic and is instantly noticeable: there are less tourists, less brand label shops, more older buildings, no large groups of foreign students and the people are really friendly.

We met a young Canadian couple at the villa and together we hired a car to visit some of the sights as there was no public transport and we would have to depend on taxis. St Hilarion is an impressive castle complex on the rocky peaks of the Kyrenia mountain range above Kyrenia city. It is one of the three castles that were used to defend the area. Warning fires were lit from the castles to warn of attackers.


In some places it was difficult to distinguish the mountain from the castle as they melded together. The complex stretched along the ridge line and the cold wind was pretty strong at the top. Luckily they had pipe rails to hold onto. On a clear day you should be able to see the Taurus Mountains in Turkey but it was hazy for us.

There were lots of wild flowers in sheltered spots of the castle and many were endangered. This plant had leaves flat to the ground and only the flowers sticking up.

Below the castle was a huge Turkish Military Camp and we could see and hear them practicing at the rifle range. In 1974, the Turkish army used the castle as a base.

Kyrenia is the only decent port in the north and the small harbour near the original Kyrenia fort is now too small so a new harbour has been built to take the car ferry, catamaran ferry and ships bringing goods from Turkey.

Northern Cyprus is a lot more expensive than the Republic as so many goods are imported from Turkey. Kyrenia was a popular place for British civil servants to retire to after they had finished their time in various parts of the British Empire. When the troubles of 1974 started many Greeks and Brits fled. Today there are about 4000 Britons living in the north but there are warnings for the new settlers to beware as unscrupulous land agents will sell land that is still owned by those who fled.
This can be seen as you drive along the motorway from Nicosia towards Kyrenia and at night the crescent and star is lit up.