Christian worship on this Co.Antrim site between Portrush and Bushmills has been taking place since the 14th century, but this derelict building is thought to date back to the early 1600’s when the area was being populated by the Protestant settlers from the Scottish Borders, which may account for its name, dedicated to the north English saint Cuthbert.
Apparently it is the only church in Ireland dedicated to Cuthbert.
Continue reading St Cuthbert’s Church, DunluceCulcrow is a townland between Kilrea and Coleraine, in County Londonderry, and not far from the amazing Brown Trout Inn, where one can enjoy fantastic food. It has a lively Primary School, a handful of houses and farms, and a few old characteristics that always caused me to slow down as I travelled up the road between Kilrea and Coleraine, on route to Portstewart. Of course I never got around to stop and take a closer look because I was in a hurry, or it was raining, or someone was with me… whatever. But Culcrow has still got an old red phone box, and despite driving past it for years, I really wanted a closer look.
Continue reading Old CulcrowA day spent around Belfast city centre can be quite boring for the dutiful husband who is required to take his ever patient wife to the city for a shopping trip – especially when that shopping trip involves what seems like endless browsing around the many clothing outlets!
The answer, of course is simple. Bring a camera, and leave her too it. That was my course of action a few weeks ago, when I left Janette in the care of the retailers, and wandered off on my own with the Fujifilm X-T50, and headed for Belfast’s touristy dockland, once the home of the coal boats, and the shady haunts of visiting seamen – now a venue for visiting cruise ship passengers and folk on city sightseeing bus tours. Safe access from the shopping area of the city to the docks is via an underground walkway, amply adorned with vivid graffiti.
A PLEASURE to photograph the wedding of Callum and Emma yesterday, 27th May 2026! A gorgeous warm day, with locations at Bangor, Portrush, (Magheracross and White Rocks) and concluding the day at the always splendid Royal Court Hotel, where the 200 or so guests enjoyed a fabulous meal, and great company.
A visit to Kilcooley Estate in Bangor today, left me reminiscing about my teens and early twenties, when I lived with my parents and family on Owenroe Drive, – one of the main routes through this large social housing development, – the third largest in Northern Ireland.
A visit to the Co.Down town of Royal Hillsborough (The home of Hillsborough Castle – a Royal Residence) on Tuesday 30th September, gave me the opportunity to add another image to my collection of photographs of the town, made on a few earlier occasions.
The people I was visiting lived directly across the road from Hillsborough Presbyterian Church, and while on earlier visits I have been able to photograph the historic and beautiful Anglican Church building, this was my first chance to get up to the Presbyterian building.
Continue reading Royal Hillsborough ChurchesNo.2 Royal Avenue
I was wandering about Belfast City Centre, with the Fujifilm X-T50, and quite honestly, I was tired! It had been a busy week, and the old heart arrhythmia was playing up. I needed somewhere to sit down for a few minutes. It was then I came across No.2 Royal Avenue and being a public building, owned by Belfast City Council, I wandered in to see what was inside. It’s an open space inside, with lots of seating and a cafe, and a library and a piano, which someone was playing, – very nicely too. I took a seat, wondering how long it would be until someone came and asked me why I was there… But it didn’t happen.
The building, described by the City Council as an ‘Indoor Park,’ is for everyone to enjoy, and all are welcome. I sat inside the building for around 20 minutes, just to get my breath back, and rest my legs, and it was while I sat there that I noticed this truly magnificent dome, and as you’d expect, it was just asking to be photographed. (I did ask one of the staff members for permission – and they were most obliging, – there’s no problem with photos inside the building, so long as no-one else objects).
Continue reading No.2 Royal Avenue: A Community Hub in Belfast“The Watson”
Another gem of Belfast’s architectural heritage, this Grade B1 listed, triangular building (known locally as ‘the smoothing iron’) in Little Donegal Street, Belfast, was once the premises of Robert Watson’s furniture manufacturing company, suppliers of beds to the Royal family, and whose beds were installed in many luxury liners built in Harland and Wolff, the Belfast shipyard, including the Titanic. The building was designed by William J Fennel and built between 1898 and 1907, originally known as ‘Library House.’
Chapel Lane Belfast
As a boy of 12 or so years of age, so, in the late 1960s, a real treat was a Saturday afternoon in Belfast City Centre with my grandfather, – for although he seemed to spend ages browsing through the stock in various tool and equipment stores, – what would probably be known now as DIY shops. But the compensation for this period of boredom would be when we eventually got to Smithfield, the old ‘shambles’ style covered market in between Royal Avenue and Millfield, off Gresham Street. Smithfield wasn’t a market with stalls, nor a modern style shopping centre, but a unique shambles of musty run-down outlets packed with books, records, tools, second hand furniture, bric-a-brac and much much more, including a popular ‘joke shop’ – every small boy’s favourite.
To get to Smithfield from the city centre bus stops required a walk along Queen’s Street, and then along Chapel Lane, and past the Roman Catholic Church of St Mary, and its strange and imposing Marian shrine. To a small boy, not of the Catholic persuasion, and unused to Catholic piety, the shrine appeared mysterious, unwelcoming and even frightening. We hurried past it with eyes looking away and heads bowed.
Clash of Construction
A city centre walk around Belfast brought me to Royal Avenue,, where classic Victorian architecture clashes with garish modernism. This example stands out…
Fujifilm X-T50 F=18mm, f/5.6 @ 1/60th sec, on ISO80.
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