Ontheedgearoundthecoast-ireland

Airbnb is always an interesting experience!  I’ve been staying in a tiny village off the coast in North Donegal. My host is a German woman. Her home is called Angels’Home and is full of angel cards, feathers, crystals etc.  In a way it’s charming .  She is a committed devotee of Diana Cooper,  a new age writer.   For many reasons I am not.  I made the error of saying so and therefore appear to have set my hostess a challenge. For the next three days she talked ‘new age concepts’ at me barely pausing to breathe. She saw angels, fairies, goddesses, unicorns and power animals round every corner and often referred to herself as having been one of these archetypes for real in other lifetimes. She is a vegan who only eats organic food and her breakfasts were really unusual and delicious.  She is writing ‘The Fairies’Recipe Book’ which she anticipates will be a world wide phenomenon.  As a medium and workshop leader she runs healing workshops and kindly ...

 Does Donegal have the best beaches in Ireland, Europe or the World even? Quite possibly. Certainly this group of Italian photographers thought so.  I had to agree And mostly, only me there!  Enough said. 

 The Antrim Coastal road towards Donegal in lovely warm and sunny weather. Another day of pretty villages, bustling seaside towns and beautiful scenery.  Antrim is proud of its Glens too and The Glen where my beloved daughter number two had ‘bought my lunch’ It’s known as Queen of Glens and was just perfect.  It was the Glenariff Nature Reserve and the restaurant Laragh Lodge, was very busy.  Then it was on towards The Giants Causeway via Portaneevey  Unfortunately The Car Park at the Giants Causeway was totally rammed at 4pm when I arrived and there was so much traffic on the road that I gave up.   Maybe tomorrow.  

 As I was leaving The Game of Thrones Studio, one of the young staff asked me where I was going from there. I said,  “up to Belfast where I’ll probably get a Black Cab tour or some such.” “Are you interested in theTroubles then?” he asked. “Far from it,” I replied “but I’m ashamed and embarrassed that I know so little about it.” “You could do something else. ” He suggested going back to the border at Newry, going to Warrenpoint and from there to drive tthe Mourne Coastal Road as far as Strangford, and back to Belfast that way. He said it would take all afternoon.  I was so happy I listened to him. Around the little coastal town of Killeen the strangest looking dry stone walls began to appear everywhere, round fields and residential homes.  Like those in other parts of the Uk there was no mortar but each stone was rounded and massive. I doubt I could have lifted one let alone constructed a long wall!  Further along where the road ran alongside the coast I could s...

 On my birthday in February my beloved number two daughter gave me three vouchers towards my Irish adventure. One for the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, another for a restaurant in a forest (which I will redeem) tomorrow and best of all…drum roll…. The Game of Thrones Studio Tour in Banbridge about an hour south of Belfast.  You park at the reception which is on the far side of a shopping outlet.    This lovely team member meets and greets then you go by shuttle bus to the studio. It’s about a ten minute journey. Thanks to Jenny,  with whom I was in Art School in Scotland I have watched all 8 seasons, but even if you haven’t, it is  a wonderful celebration of the artistry, dedication and sheer skill of a huge group of artists from all over the World. I met the young man who was one of the costume designers of the Wildings clothing. They ran out of mussel shells during construction and had to send runners asking seafood restaurants all over Belfast to save t...