Mount Stewart Barbecue

I attended a barbecue at Mount Stewart this evening. For those who don't know, Mount Stewart, on the Ards Peninsula, County Down, is a property of the National Trust.

It was a seat of the Marquesses of Londonderry.

The barbecue was a social event for mainly volunteers of the property. I do a bit a work for the Strangford Lough group and we're attached to this property.

We were welcomed by the Property Manager, Jon Kerr.

The Lauritzens (Lady Rose is a daughter of the late Lady Mairi Bury and granddaughter of the 7th Marquess and Marchioness of Londonderry) attended for part of the evening.

The Lauritzens live in part of Mount Stewart House.

There were dozens of guests at the barbecue.

A private catering company, which I think was called Orange Tree or Sullivan's, supplied everything, including very good beef burgers, pork and apricot burgers, sausages, chicken wings, coleslaw, potato salad and so on.

Afterwards we ambled to the Spanish Garden, where props are in place for filming of the new Dracula film, produced by Universal Pictures.

I was with a party of five and we stayed for about two hours.