Springhill House, Londonderry County

Northern Ireland has a number of National Trust sites, and we wanted to see at least Springhill, Mt. Stewart, and Castle Ward, all quite comparable to Trust sites we have seen in England and Wales. Springhill is a late 17th century manor house, part of the Ulster Plantation, and in the hands of the Conygham and Lenox families from that time until 1957. Amazingly, the contents of the house are all original and contain some real treasures. And no, we did not see the ghost, although the guide, a particularly good one, certainly set the story well.

Springhill House

Knife and gun club, including some used to put down various
Irish rebellions; the blunderbuss, we learned, is actually
a ladies' weapon (don't have to be a good shot; to be fired from
the hip)

Knife and gun club, part two: a Kentucky rifle and a long rifle,
1680, used in defense of Derry

Extremely rare: death warrant for Charles I; Cromwell's signature is third down on
the left; it was death to own a copy in the Restoration; this is one of only a few
known surviving copies

Library, 3,000 books, largest private collection of 16th-17th in Ireland; original
edition of Hobbes' Leviathan, others

Traveling chest

Sitting room

Very old Steiff bear

Cane given by George III to a lady of the family after she had lost her leg

Black Wedgewood

Faux bread molds (it's a long story)

Grave marker from WWI France

Interesting antiques everywhere

Derry

Londonderry, if you're of the UK of GB bent. Northern Ireland is, but perhaps not for much longer. We drove in on a rainy Sunday morning, found a convenient parking lot, and spent a couple hours walking its walls and viewing a few of the landmarks. I was still feeling under the weather, but well enough to go for a full Irish breakfast at the end of our sight-seeing.

It's a walled city--the old bits-- and one of the things you do is
walk the walls

The whole place is admirably explained in
numerous signs; sadly, most of the history is
about the evils of religion and nation...but Derry
and the rest of Northern Ireland seem to be rising
above those things, offering some little hope for
the rest of the world...

It's quite a young city, as these things go

Street scene walking up onto the walls

Street scene from the walls

Northern Ireland voted to Remain--56%--and
people we talked to were angry and already
predicting reunification with the Republic of
Ireland...something unthinkable a generation
ago

An array of artillery from Derry's early days as a colonial
center

This one made in the reign of QE1

So it says

Tower of yore--1992, Vicki says

The Peace Bridge, a pedestrian bridge uniting the Protestant
and Catholic communities

Derry was a major point of departure in the
continuing Irish diaspora; Vicki conjectures
her "Scotch-Irish" ancestors may have departed
from Derry; I get all my scotch directly from
Islay and Highland Park

Walls and another portal

City Hall--beautiful sandstone Gothick--and home of the city
museum, one of the few cultural things open on Sunday morning

A happy ending for me; Vicki had her usual scone and tea

Irish Out-Takes, 1

Before our narrative takes us into Northern Ireland seems a good place to inject a few Irish out-takes...

At the Blanchardstown Centre (mall) outside Dublin: "Come on you boys in
green"; in the Euro Cup, Ireland beat Italy, impressively, but then fell to France

Interesting sign defacement

Not a dog lover

We never miss a Sweet Pea store (Dingle) (Penelope)

Business diversification

Thus (Dingle)

Best lawn ornament ever, so far

Visit Abbeyland, Famineland, Rebellionland...

At a Dublin bakery: original crispy fondant

Group mimes

Indeed, at Gogarty's

Irish camo

People really do wear it

Men in saffron

Rotel spin-off: the bus can accommodate 22 tourists plus driver, guide, and cook;
everything contained in this one vehicle; sleeping compartments upstairs...

"Oh God, not another garden!"

"Our back-up camera has been bugged!"

Fierce Viking again

Yet another church converted to restaurant (Cashel)

Greencastle, Donegal

Vicki's sister Marie was born in Greencastle, so imagine our delight in driving through Greencastle, County Donegal, and thinking maybe she'd like some pictures. Alas, Marie was born in Greencastle, Indiana, however, and, according to the entry in Wikipedia, Greencastle, Indiana, was actually named, by its founder, Ephraim Duke, for his hometown, namely, Greencastle, Pennsylvania. Persistent researchers that we are, a little further inquiry revealed that Greencastle, Pennsylvania, was in fact named for Greencastle, County Donegal, which is good, since there are half a dozen Greencastles on this island, and I was not going to pursue it any further. Anyhow, Marie, here are some pix from the town that the town your birthplace was named for, was named for...enjoy!

Welcome to Greencastle, Donegal

It's a commercial fishing village on the Lough Foyle

Looking across the Lough to Northern Ireland

And an old Martello Tower there

Nice house with massive rock garden

The green castle?

Main street

Etc.

Part of fishing fleet and fish market

Busy harbor; OK , it was Saturday, low-tide; we drove on to Muff,
where the Wild Atlantic Way ends, and spent the night there
before crossing over into Northern Ireland