We stayed in a very nice B&B, although a bit strange as no-one on site – all keys in individual key boxes, bar was an honesty bar and breakfast was a sort of continental affair.
Our B&B was in Bryansford, rather than Newcastle itself, and the village has a successful Gaelic football team, Bryansford GAC. The team has won the Ulster Senior Club Football Championship twice, in 1969 and 1970. They play their home matches in St. Patricks Park in the nearby town of Newcastle. Today promised a much better weather experience than yesterday although it was still cold enough to require jackets as we started out heading through the small village of Clough and on towards Downpatrick. A few cute lambs and a loopback to yesterdays mountains were the scenic highlights of the first part of the day.
Walking into Downpatrick we passed by the Downpatrick Racecourse. This is one of the two horse racing courses in Northern Ireland, (the other being Down Royal). The first race meeting at Downpatrick was held in 1685 under the charter of James II of Englandwho issued letters patent creating The Royal Corporation of Horse Breeders in the County of Down. After a nice deli sandwich on Downpatrick for lunch we continued our progress towards the Strangford Ferry by passing through Saul. When St Patrick came to Ireland strong currents swept his boat from the Irish sea through the Strangford Lough Narrows and he landed at the Slaney River, near Downpatrick. The High King’s brother, Dichu, was quickly converted and gave him a barn or Sabhall in Gaelic, from which the name Saul derives. This became the first church in Ireland.
Just after Saul we passed by Ireland’s national monument to Saint Patrick. Slieve Patrick is a large hill in Lecale donated by the Hampton family for the erection of a National Monument. The statue on the top is the world’s largest statue of Saint Patrick, carved of Mourne Granite near Kilcoo the statue is unusual as it has a workman’s boot on one foot and a sandal on the other to commemorate the quarry men. From the top of the hill there are excellent views over Strangford Lough. You can also see Saul Church, the Isle of Man, and the Mull of Kintyre on a clear day.
The end of our second days walking came as we got to the ferry between Strangford and Portaferry on Strangford Lough. In 1611 James I granted land on either side of the Lough to Peirce Tumolton in order to maintain and crew a ferry boat. In 1835 a group of local people formed the “Portaferry and Strangford Steamboat Company” and commissioned the building of the Lady of the Lake, which was the first steam ferry in Ireland. There has been a ferry operating this route continuously since 1611. No ice cream today but second best as we sat down in the rare sunshine was a cup of tea and a cinnamon/apple scone.
Tomorrow we shall head up the east coast of the Ards peninsula.
