Fermanagh, Londonderry / Derry and Antrim, but by road

Well, the little Fiat had a big surprise. It got taken all the way over to the other side of Northern Ireland and even had to contend with the motorway and some hills too.

Enniskillen was lovely. A proper rural "county town" sort of place with amazing local shops. Go into Home, Field and Stream sometime. We then headed towards our overnight stop at Bellanaleck. En route, we admired this rather agricultural and rusty way of dragging boats up a slipway. Almost rivals the old kit we pictured last year that is still in use at Kilmelford:

The picture doesn't really show the true level of rust on the cab. To be more precise, the number of extra ventilation holes in the sheet metal that rust has enabled over time. Would not trust them to recover any boat we owned.

On the other hand, the guest house (Corrigans Shore) was wonderful. A proper Irish welcome, good accommodation, such a friendly hostess and lovely views too. Here is the house (and our ball of fire Fiat rental car):

Nice house, shame about the wheels. To the right and 10 yards away, is the river of course.  The B&B owner, Catherine, was all you would expect from a Fermanagh landlady and then some more. In the garden leading down to the river, we were eyeballed by one of the residents:

If you are thinking B&B in the area, this is the place to visit. We then headed around the lakes and up to Belleek, the home of the famous pottery:

Of course, the stuff they produce is famous and very elegant, but not at all to our taste so we resisted the usual visitor shop offerings.

Derry / Londonderry was a real surprise.  Now officially known by both names to appease both factions (Nationalists and Loyalists) it gets sarcastically referred to as "stroke city" (work it out - remember that / was known as a stroke before IT made it a forward slash!). The city is a treasure trove of old buildings. Tidied up so much too since the captain's one brief visit many years ago during "the troubles" when the place was pretty much locked down by security forces. The walled area is great. Apparently the only intact walled city left in Ireland and one of the best in Europe too.

Looking over the wall towards the Bogside area was a real reminder of the troubles and the civil rights' disturbances, Bloody Sunday and the terrorism issues there. For the non UK readers, have a look at Bloody Sunday info for some background. Looking across to the nationalist area, with Irish flags flying and "IRA" painted on roofs, you realise just how far there is to go in the peace process.

The events are recorded in some stunning and thought provoking murals (very Norn Iron) in the Bogside. This one is called Loss of Innocence, depicting a kid throwing petrol bombs at security forces:

and one about Bloody Sunday too:

The riverside and new "peace bridge" are lovely

A city that we want to spend more time in. (By the way, for the boating folks, berths here are very very cheap and in a nice secure spot near to the city centre. Worth a few days visit.)

Our last location on the whistlestop tour was Antrim. Nice old courthouse (with a very friendly tea shop inside too - no carrot cake this time though as Norn Iron like Scotland tends to go for traybakes rather than the typical English chunks of cake.) :

The walk down to Lough Neagh was most civilised. Firstly passing through the old castle grounds:

then the park area:

and the beautiful gardens too:

The car trip was a good taster trip for the area; we will be back!! It also reminds you of the challenges that are still ahead for the peace process and the political stalemate in Stormont, the parliament.