Killynether Country Park is situated outside Newtownards, on the slopes of Scrabo. We walked through the wood on a sunny evening in May, just around an hour before sunset, looking for the strong low sunlight making paths through the leaves.
Category Archives: Beautiful Ulster
Percy French Country
The Irish poet and songwriter, Percy French immortalised Newcastle, Co.Down in his famous song…
Oh, Mary, this London’s a wonderful sight
With people here working by day and by night
They don’t sow potatoes, nor barley nor wheat
But there’ gangs of them digging for gold in the streets
At least when I asked them that’s what I was told
So I just took a hand at this diggin’ for gold
But for all that I found there I might as well be
Where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea.
Tonight, on the hottest day of the year in Northern Ireland, I visited Newcastle, and made some images around the town… Continue reading Percy French Country
Moira Railway Station
Moira, historically in the County of Down, is served by NIR (Northern Ireland Railways), via a station around 1 mile outside the town, and actually situated in Co Antrim. The line is the Belfast to Portadown line, and Moira lies between Lisburn and Lurgan.
The station boasts a rather fine (although now disused) signal box and is the oldest station still in use on the NIR network, opened on 18 November 1841. Its hard to believer now that just as recently as 1945 the station was manned by a staff of 15 men, including the stationmaster, porters, signalmen etc. Now no-one works here at all.
Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh
A short overnight stay in Enniskillen gave me a few minutes to get down to the famous Enniskillen Castle for a few shots. The Castle is the home of the museaum of the Royal Ennniskilling Fusiliers, and is sitauted right on the banks of Lough Erne.
The North-West
A wee visit to Donegal, the northernmost couty of the Irish Republic, and a stop for lunch in Londonderry on the way left me with a little bit of time to make some photographs, using the Fujifilm X-T2. Here’s some of the images:-
Monaghan, Ireland
Monaghan Town
On a bright sunny April Friday, we visited Monaghan on business, and spend a little time around the busy town centre wiith the Fujifilm X-T2. Here’s some of the images.
Brownlow House, Lurgan
One of my favourite wedding venues, in Lurgan, Co. Armagh, – BROWNLOW HOUSE.
Banbridge Outlet
A wee day off on Easter Tuesday and Janette and I took a wee trip down to Banbridge and a walk along the ‘Boulevard’ – the new name for the outlet centre. After all it was a wet day, with thunder storms and hailstones, and the Boulevard is covered, at least in part, and that meant there were quite a few people about to add human interest. Needless to say I brought the Fujifil X-T2 camera, and made a couple of exposures as we walked around.
Upper Ballinderry – Co.Antrim
Q. What does a photographer do on his day off?
A. Photography.
With no studio appointments on a Friday, and lured by the prospect of a decent spring day, and with another matter to be attended to in the area, I travelled to Ballinderry. It’s a rural area in Co Antrim, between Moira and Crumlin.
To be more precise, my real destination was Upper Ballinderry –
(There was a yarn – about a Ballinderry man who wanted to travel home from Japan, and who went to a travel agent in a small remote Japanese town, and asked for travel to Ballinderry. With oriental inscrutability and precision the clerk replied, Yes sir. Upper or Lower Ballinderry?)
He’d find it hard to travel to Ballinderry by train now as my first stop in the village proved. NIR has mothballed the line between Lisburn and Antrim and Ballinderry Station is now a shadow of its former self. The Antrim bound platform has been dismantled and the station building allowed to decay. The entrance to the station is now blocked. The track is still in place, – it was always a single track line, – but the passing loop has gone and the line seems to be used now as a siding. Today it had goods wagons sitting on the track.
Killinchy, Co. Down
Killinchy, Co. Down.
On a recent visit to Killinchy I travelled on down to the shores of Strangford Lough at Whiterock Bay. The Lough is splattered with islands at this point, and closest to the shore, joined by a causeway, is Sketrick Island, with its distictive castle.
The castle is a 16th Century Tower House, a defensive position which saw battle in the 17th Century. Originally four storeys high, part of the castle collapsed in 1896, and what remains is now curated by the NI Communities Historic Environment Dept.
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