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Giant's Causeway
It had to be done. The Giant’s Causeway. Arguably Northern Ireland’s most famous tourist attraction. I’m not so sure how I feel about it. Spectacular enough. Geologically superb and steeped in folklore. But the £18.5m visitor centre (of which just over £6m came from the EU); World Heritage Site award; shuttle buses for the 1km…
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Seals, Rathlin Island
A colony of seals, arguing amongst themselves at Rue Point on Rathlin Island off Ballycastle.
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Ballintoy harbour
On the Antrim north coast. A picturesque harbour but very touristy especially on a bank holiday weekend in Ireland. Made even more popular by being yet another Game of Thrones location.
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Cushendun Caves
On the Antrim coast. It was the young scion’s idea. A cycling tour of Northern Ireland. Great. He put the itinerary together. Great; castles and rugged scenery. Or so I thought. Turns out the Game of Thrones TV series was filmed in Northern Ireland and our itinerary happens to pick up several of its locations.…
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Cairnholy Chambered Cairn
One of a pair, 6,000 to 4,000 years old, near Gatehouse of Fleet on the Solway coast. Although very robbed out an excavation was carried out in 1949 when a stone axe of Jadeite was found, a rock originating in the Alps.
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An heffalump trap?
I visited this brick lined shaft on Tuesday but I wasn’t happy with the photos so a return visit today. It was a ventilation shaft for the Coate Moor Ironstone Mine. A furnace would have been at the bottom and the air warmed would rise drawing in fresh air from the main drift entrance. Coate…
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Roseberry and fireweed
Rosebay willowherb or fireweed as it commonly known because it’s the first plant to grow after a fire. Also called bombweed for the same reason in the craters left by the blitz. Its downy seeds are carried along in the slipstream of railways and cars. Fireweed is common throughout the northern hemisphere. It’s eaten in North…
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Cute and cuddly alpacas
At least I think they are alpacas. Could be llamas. Back on the North Yorkshire Moors and these two were quite curious of me as I ran down the lane in Lounsdale. Alpacas have been bred for centuries in the Andes of South America for their wool and meat. I have never seen alpaca meat for sale in the…
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Derwentwater
A classic Lakeland view. Derwentwater from Walla Crag. Keswick on the right, Lake Bassenthwaite in the distance. And in the foreground, following on from last weeks’s posting, Ling is in flower alongside the darker Bell Heather.
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Gatesgarth Bridge
A wet day in the Lakes and a trip up to Dale Head didn’t produce anything photogenic. Gatesgarth Bridge at the bottom of Honistor Pass on the Buttermere side reminds me of an earlier visit. October 2008 and I was sitting in my VW Polo at almost the same spot watching the water in Gatesgarthdale…
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