Londonderry, Northern Ireland

We continued along the coast and onto Londonderry. Signs in Northern Ireland point to Londonderry but signs in the Republic point to Derry.

Derry/Londonderry is a walled city. The wall was started in 1545 and completed in 1619. There are still some old cannons along the walls and the name Derry comes from the fact that the walls have never been breached by invaders.

On the west of the walls is the Bogside district which was developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a working class mostly Catholic residential area. It was the place of the three-day 'Battle of the Bogside' in August 1969. Today it is still residential and the buildings have murals commemorating key events in the Troubles.



We visited Ereti's son Jason at Duncreggan University. He is studying music with an interest in composing. He was thrilled we were able to bring him some things he needed from home.

Portrush, Northern Island

My sister's partner's parents live in Portrush so we visited them. Portrush is pretty busy in the summer with holiday makers arriving to spend time at the beach. It is popular for surfing as well and there were quite a few brave souls in the high seas trying to catch waves.

The port was a place where many Irish folk left by boats for America during the Potato Famine.
We drove around the coast and saw the ruins of Dunluce Castle. Part of the castle, including the kitchen, fell into the ocean in 1639, along with some of the servants and the dinner. It was owned by the Mac Donnell family too.

There are several international golf courses along the coast line in Portrush. It would have been nice to play a game but it was very wet and windy most of the time.

Gerry and Kathleen made us most welcome. Gerry is a retired plumber but still does odd jobs about the town. Kathleen does volunteer work at a charity shop and had been asked to sell poppies to raise funds for war veterans.

Stranraer, Scotland to Islandmagee, Ireland

Our friends Alan and Helen put us in touch with friends of theirs, Stephanie and Matthew, near Stranraer. It was really convenient as it was not too far from the ferry crossing to Northern Ireland. Matthew and Stephanie live on a large farm and are pretty self-sufficient. We ate sausage they had made from their animals. Matthew had a duck and some pheasants hanging outside the back door ready to be prepared for eating.

The property that they lived in used to be the local parish school and it was interesting to read an account from one of the teachers who ran the school. She had several children arrive at the school during the war years and they were billeted by local farming families. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of our stay with Matthew and Stephanie.

We headed off early the next morning and found our catamaran ferry had been cancelled because of damage it had sustained in a storm the day before. We had to wait several hours before the next ferry crossing and they took a long time to load as they had lots of extra passengers. It looked to us like they would never fit everyone on but they did.

Our tourist information pamphlets showed us a campground not far from Belfast so we decided to cross the city and have a brief look at it but it turned out to be the wrong decision as there were several streets being resealed and car crashes and ambulances blocking up the one way streets. When we finally arrived at the campground it was closed so we continued driving along the coast looking for somewhere to camp.

We found a caravan club site at Islandmagee and were the only people in the camp even though it is mid term holidays for many schools. It was very cold so we were grateful to be able to plug into the electricity and have our fan heater running. The camp was pretty basic and had no showers or hot water and we had to walk a long way to get to the toilets.

We drove around the peninsula and spent some time talking to the local fishermen near the bird nesting colony at Port Muck. We were hoping to be able to see some puffins but they had headed for Rathlin Island further off the coast. If the weather had been better we would have liked to have spent some time on the island but it has been stormy lately.

We continued on around the coast road stopping briefly in Glenarm, the home to the Mac Donnell clan.

We arrived at the Giant's Causeway during a break in the weather. The fee to park in the National Trust car park was 7.50 Euros for our van and a man told us to continue driving to the hotel car park where we could park for free if we had a cup of tea there. The tea only cost 2 Euros. There were still several tourists clambering over the rocks even with the high seas running. Parts of the walkway were closed due to land slides.

Scone, Perthsire, Scotland

Drove through Fort William and Glen Coe back to Scone. The weather was miserably wet and miserable.

We spent more time with our friends Ereti and Wallace again. John was able to go and play golf in the rain with Wallace and Lil was able to help Ereti with the cooking. Wallace was very proud of his enormous leek which we used to make a tasty leek and potato soup with.

Wallace's sister and her husband also stayed so each evening we had fun playing charades again.

John was able to help out doing some jobs about the house and we have loaded a suitcase of Ereti's son's clothes into our van and are heading for Ireland.

Glenfinnan, Scotland

Our friends Helen and Alan from Balcombe, Sussex put us in touch with their friend Alistair in Glenfinnan so we paid him a visit.

We enjoyed the 'stalkers' pie' Alistair made from venison and topped with potatoes.

He lives nearby this viaduct that was used in the 'Harry Potter' film.


Alistair works as a gamekeeper and forester on the Glenfinnan Estate. He had guests arrive while we were visiting and they were preparing to shoot stags (red deer) on the Monday and then hinds on the Tuesday. Each year the estate culls 30 stags and 150 hinds.

Alistair has a busy life involved with managing the local rugby team, deerstalkers' ball, and is a local sherriff (Justice of the Peace).

Not far from the house is a statue to the 'Raising of the Standard'. It was here that Bonny Prince Charlie made a move to be king in 1745.

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Portree

It was quite easy to find places to free camp on the Isle of Skye. It was quiet at this time of the year but with a bridge joining it to the mainland now it is a busy place in the summer.

There are lots of walks on the island in the national parks. This one is very popular but it was too wet and windy to enjoy walking. We did see several cyclists struggling against the elements.
The first robin we have seen.

Visited Dunvegan Castle belonging to the Mac Leods.

While on Skye it was John's mother's birthday so we phoned her to wish her happy 95th. She said she couldn't believe she was 95!

Western Isles Road-Ullapool to Skye, Scotland

What a beautiful part of the country.

We stopped at this wee place called Plockton and the main street was lined with NZ cabbage trees. Most people over here think they are palm trees but the cordylines are actually the world's largets lillies!