In 2010, I visited the peninsula of Islandmagee, in County Antrim.
I motored along the Antrim coast, parked at a lay-by, fetched my camera, and ambled down a track which leads to The Gobbins, the former cliff path built in 1902 as a tourist attraction.
The BBC has written an article here.
I didn't walk very far along the old path because I was on my own and, quite frankly, I am not particularly fond of heights; especially if they are precarious, as the ruinous Gobbins path presently is!
Further along the coast there is an intriguing derelict farmstead which, it could be supposed, is the Gobbins Farm named on the memorial obelisk to two First World War fallen soldiers nearby:
To the memory of Lance Corporal Walter Newell, 6th Battalion, Black Watch, who fell in action in France on the 13th July 1915. Erected by his friends with whom he spent many happy days at the Gobbins Farm.And at its base:
Captain W V Edwards, Royal Dublin Fusiliers ...
The prospect of revisiting the newly-restored Gobbins path in 2015 generates excitement.
Revised. First published in July, 2010.
4 comments :
Great post. I love the photos. Thankyou.
I was there today !!!!!!! fantastic views and so peaceful, my Dad spent alot of time in Islandmagee as a boy and now I am goin to sprinkle his ashes at the Gobbins just at the waterfall.
Just a few details on the two commemorated on the obelisk - Walter NEWEL (one l) was the son of Henry A. Newel, of 362, Antrim Rd., Belfast while William Victor EDWARDS was the son of Mary Edwards, of The Laurels, Strandtown, Belfast, and the late Alfred Edwards. Details are from CWGC.org
We stayed at one of the cottages near the hut at top of the lane as a child. I loved it and used to spend many happy days on the beach in the 1960’s it was truly marvellous. Fantastic times and fabulous memories, of our family at play. Go to Woodside’s farm to get milk, walking through the field and cow pats. Primus stove to boil hot water, fishing off the side, the resounding plunk noise of a rock dropped into the deep sea. Most of that coastline still remains in un-chartered in parts. Magical place.
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