The pub for last night was very nice, food was good, room comfortable and service really friendly. Today was forecast to be extremely wet and windy so it was fortuitous that todays walk would be a short one from Donaghadee to Bangor.
The rain hadn’t started by the time Helen picked up our bags and we set off along the coast, but the skies did look dark and ominous. Donaghadee was used in the 1759–1826 period by couples going to Portpatrick in Scotland to marry, as there was a daily packet boat. During this period, Portpatrick was known as the “Gretna Green for Ireland”. The castle pictured is the Motte or Moat, originally a motte-and-bailey castle built by the Anglo-Normans in the late 12th century. The folly or castle on top of the motte was built by Daniel Delacherois in the early 19th century. It was used for storing the gunpowder, used for blasting, when the new harbour was being built between 1821 and 1834. Today it is part of a park, giving views across the town and seawards towards the Copeland Islands.
Now the rain was falling as we walked towards Groomsport, just about seeing Copeland Island before it disappeared in the gloom. We spotted a couple of hardy souls just heading out into the bay for a swim!
Having got to Groomsport we decided that, despite the weather, it would be more enjoyable to walk the actual coast path rather than remaining on the road. This proved to be a good choice as we were able to walk on nearly all of the Ballyholme beach where the row of houses on the promenade reminded me of the children’s TV program called Balamory. It was still raining at this stage as we exited the beach and headed for a coffee and soup for lunch – due to the short walk we had to kill time before we could checkin to our B&B. Tomorrow we head to Belfast in hopefully better weather.
