Long weekend in Northern Ireland

Filed by: Darren on March 5, 2007 at 13:38
Filed In: Drink, Food, Life, Photography

Jo and I have spent the last three days in the always wonderful company of our very good friends Paul and Marie, as guests in their lovely home on the east coast of Northern Ireland.

The ancient province of Ulster is where you'll find of the most gloriously wild and unspoilt coastland in the UK. The more commonly tourist-trodden Giant's Causeway has been largely tamed, but is still quite literally breath-taking, particularly on a typically wind-swept spring day. Paul and Marie live a fair bit further south, where there are far fewer tourists, which means fewer cars, car-parks, visitor centres and litter-bins to mar the landscape.

They do get an awful lot of rain and wind though, and both Friday and Sunday were typical for the time of year: grey, lowering skies with squalls sweeping in from the Irish Sea and rattling the roof tiles. So we stayed in, enjoyed home-cooked chiken korma, chilli con carne and bacon & mushroom frittata, drank bottled Guinness and the Whitewater Brewery's Belfast Ale (thanks to Ed for the recommendation, Paul and I really enjoyed it), sipped snifters of Laphroig cask strength and played poker and Uno when we weren't whiling away the hours in conversation.

But on Saturday the weather lifted and the sun shone through, so we took the opportunity to go for a trek up along the coast for a couple of miles, following a short section of the Ulster Way. Here are a few snapshots I took with my old and un-fancy Fuji Finepix A203:

That water is a fair bit colder than it looks

They don't call it the Emerald Isle for nothing...

Quite lovely, no?

And of course, our destination was a fantastic country pub, where I enjoyed a remarkably fine sirloin steak (Jo had the lemon sole), washed down by a couple of delicious pints of Guinness. Have you noticed how they always taste better after a decent amount of exercise? Must be the lower guilt-content...

Ahhhh... Northern Ireland. Highly recommended.

Filed on: March 5, 2007
Filed under: Drink, Food, Life, Photography
Tagged with: coastal-scenery | Northern-Ireland |

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2 Responses to 'Long weekend in Northern Ireland'

Ed on March 6th, 2007 8:38 pm

So when you moving over?
Ariel on March 6th, 2007 9:29 pm

Seriously mate, don't tempt me :)

A holiday cottage in the grounds of the Whitewater Brewery might be the next step, as long as they pipe the stuff straight to a tap in the kitchen...

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