COUNTY
OF ANTRIM
Templepatrick
with its National Trust owned Templeton Mausoleum and the pre-17th
Century House, Castle Upton – Toomebridge home of the largest
eel fishery in the British Isles – Crumlin, a delightful
village with its Talnotry Cottage Bird Garden and Crumlin Glen. Close
by Shane’s Castle an attractive parkland estate of the O’Neill
family on the shores of Lough Neagh, boasts nature reserve and castle.
Others will bear on north to Cushendall with its curfew tower,
where Glenballyeamon (Edwardstown glen) and Glenaan (glen
of the rush lights) meet. Layde Old Church, above the cliff, has the
atmospheric graveyard of the warlord McDonnell.
Glendun, the brown glen, flows to the sea at tranquil Cushendun,
its white-washed cottages designed by Clough Williams-Ellis who built
Portmerion in Wales. The Cave House, reached through a 60ft/18m rock
tunnel, now a religious retreat, was where the poet John Masefield went
a-courting in 1820. St Patrick, when praying, made, they say, the two
hollows in the Gloonan Stone (opposite the Catholic Church) with his
knees.
The Moyle region is famous for its history, its legends and hospitality,
as well as its lush green forests, rugged seascapes and sleepy villages.
Moyle District Council, Ballycastle. Tel: (028) 2076 2024.
North-west the road turns inland to charming Ballycastle, port
for Rathlin Island and Scotland. Where Glentaisie (the glen of
Princess Taisie) and Glenshesk, (the glen of the sedges) meet.
As it crosses the salmon and trout rich River Dun, in this the wildest
of the glens, the road runs along a spendid viaduct built in 1838 by
Charles Lanyon, the man who designed many of Belfast’s finest public
buildings. He also devised The Frosses, parallel rows of fir trees,
which still secure the bed of the A26 as it runs north across the bogland
of the Antrim Plateau between the market towns of Ballymena and
Ballymoney, the latter town having the Stable Gallery
specialising in Irish artists.
Another road meanders precipitiously between fuchsia-rich hedges by
the sea, by Torr Head, by beautiful Murlough Bay, home
to Watertop Open Farm a traditional Irish working farm. Past Fair
Head the Grey Man’s Path, a monstrous fissure, speaks of a
grimmer other-world.
Lisburn is situated in the middle of the Lagan Valley corridor 8 miles
from Belfast and was awarded a City Status in the Queen’s Jubilee
City Status competition in August 2002.
Originally the centre of the developing linen industry which is well
portrayed in its Linen Centre at Lisburn Museum, Tel. (028)
9266 3377, tracing the history of the province’s most important
industry. Lisburn Cathedral, one of the oldest buildings in the
city, is the grave of Louis Crommelin, made Linen Overseer of Ireland.
Hilden still makes linen thread in the Barbour Threads factory
where John Barbour set up the province’s first thread mill in 1784,
their products are exported worldwide. The local Hilden Brewery,
Hilden House Tel. (028) 9266 3863, has exhibitions of brewing
and sampling can be seen 10.00am - 5.00pm. Tours of the brewery are
also available at 11.30 and 2.30 daily.
The wide choice of amenities and facilities attract visitors to Lisburn
and the rest of the city. Villages like Hillsborough and Moira
which are renowned for their floral displays in the summertime and the
variety of shops and restaurants.
The town has golf (18) and Down Royal Race Course at The Maze
is just to the west with regular meetings held throughout the year.
Tel: 028 9262 1256.
Lady Dixons Park near Drumbo is renowned for its Rose Festival
with a display of many different kinds of roses.
The Lagan Valley Country Park follows the river into Belfast,
past
lock gates and the houses and estates
of the linen magnates, some now turned to parkland.
Lisburn has always been a rich cousin of Belfast and a great commercial
centre and shopping town. The central pedestrian precinct has branches
of many High Street stores including Boots, Top Shop, Superdrug,
The Body Shop, Jessops Photography, River Island, Thomas Cook and
many more.
The Gift Centre in Lisburn is one of a series of branches throughout
the province specialising in fine giftware.
The towns shopping centre Bow Street Mall is made up of different
range of shops to suit everyone such as Dunnes Stores, HMV, Smyths
Toys, JJB Sports and Hanna & Brown Furniture.
