As I sit here and write my post for what went on last Tuesday, tomorrow (Thursday the 16th) will be our last day in Northern Ireland… that is CRAZY! Just last week Tim was telling us around this time we will be looking back on our experiences and think it was all a dream… it sure is starting to feel like that right about now.
Tuesday morning Kathryn and I headed into Belfast on the bus to meet our point men at the Ulster Scots Agency. We soon headed north to Ballymoney to visit the Ulster-Scots site set up there. This site is more focused on the preservation and expansion of the Ulster-Scots language whereas the site in Belfast is more so comprehensive but definitely gears most of its focus toward Ulster Scots heritage. Now this is where my life changes from here on out… Kathryn and I were interviewed on their live radio show, Fuse FM. Big stuff guys! Their host Jackie was an awesome guy and was so thrilled to have some Americans in so he had an excuse to play American bands.
Our next stop of the day was absolutely terrible… Bushmills Distillery… what?! Best placement ever – thanks Ulster-Scots! We got the chance to tour the historic Bushmills, see how they make this fabulous whiskey and got the chance to sample 12 year old Bushmills. From the distillery we headed further north to the northern coast of County Antrim to visit Dunluce Castle. Dunluce is on the very edge of a cliff, and several hundred years ago there was a terrible storm that came through causing the kitchen to fall into the ocean which sat on the very edge of the cliff. As you would imagine, the head lady of the household didn’t want to continue living on their estate and abandoned their beautiful castle – but hey, I can’t exactly blame her. Now the castle lies in ruins as a large portion of its stones had been taken over the years by other farmers and those in the surrounding villages so there is much natural decay. There has been very little restoration made to the castle, with the exception of basic foundation reinforcements and one row of windows – only changing one decayed window to what it would have looked like in its prime with the other decayed next to it. After taking a cultural preservation class this past semester the debate of whether to preserve old buildings to their original state was a big topic we touched on so I thought it very interesting that this was the approach they took towards this particular castle.
After this, John took us to the infamous Dark Hedges (if you watch Game of Thrones you’ll know what this is… pictures to come). We also got a chance to see our Ulster-Scottie (as Tim calls us/them) in action as he led a language seminar/workshop on the Ulster-Scots language to some very passionate people who were of Ulster-Scottish heritage. Although the size of the turnout was a bit small, the quality absolutely superseded this fact – everyone was asking awesome questions that displayed their keen interests on the subject and how much they really care about maintaining their language.
Later that night back in Crawfordsburn we all headed out to a local restaurant in Bangor called the Salty Dog and met up with Tim for a drink at a local pub. As the others headed back home, Kathryn, Rory and I ventured through downtown Bangor in search of some locals – at this point we weren’t sure if young people did not exist in Bangor or not – but it was probably because it was a Tuesday night. Either way, we found a bar with great karaoke and somewhat befriended some locals and got a taste of what going out on a Tuesday night in Bangor is like.
All for now, more to come later! Cheerio
Tuesday morning Kathryn and I headed into Belfast on the bus to meet our point men at the Ulster Scots Agency. We soon headed north to Ballymoney to visit the Ulster-Scots site set up there. This site is more focused on the preservation and expansion of the Ulster-Scots language whereas the site in Belfast is more so comprehensive but definitely gears most of its focus toward Ulster Scots heritage. Now this is where my life changes from here on out… Kathryn and I were interviewed on their live radio show, Fuse FM. Big stuff guys! Their host Jackie was an awesome guy and was so thrilled to have some Americans in so he had an excuse to play American bands.
Our next stop of the day was absolutely terrible… Bushmills Distillery… what?! Best placement ever – thanks Ulster-Scots! We got the chance to tour the historic Bushmills, see how they make this fabulous whiskey and got the chance to sample 12 year old Bushmills. From the distillery we headed further north to the northern coast of County Antrim to visit Dunluce Castle. Dunluce is on the very edge of a cliff, and several hundred years ago there was a terrible storm that came through causing the kitchen to fall into the ocean which sat on the very edge of the cliff. As you would imagine, the head lady of the household didn’t want to continue living on their estate and abandoned their beautiful castle – but hey, I can’t exactly blame her. Now the castle lies in ruins as a large portion of its stones had been taken over the years by other farmers and those in the surrounding villages so there is much natural decay. There has been very little restoration made to the castle, with the exception of basic foundation reinforcements and one row of windows – only changing one decayed window to what it would have looked like in its prime with the other decayed next to it. After taking a cultural preservation class this past semester the debate of whether to preserve old buildings to their original state was a big topic we touched on so I thought it very interesting that this was the approach they took towards this particular castle.
After this, John took us to the infamous Dark Hedges (if you watch Game of Thrones you’ll know what this is… pictures to come). We also got a chance to see our Ulster-Scottie (as Tim calls us/them) in action as he led a language seminar/workshop on the Ulster-Scots language to some very passionate people who were of Ulster-Scottish heritage. Although the size of the turnout was a bit small, the quality absolutely superseded this fact – everyone was asking awesome questions that displayed their keen interests on the subject and how much they really care about maintaining their language.
Later that night back in Crawfordsburn we all headed out to a local restaurant in Bangor called the Salty Dog and met up with Tim for a drink at a local pub. As the others headed back home, Kathryn, Rory and I ventured through downtown Bangor in search of some locals – at this point we weren’t sure if young people did not exist in Bangor or not – but it was probably because it was a Tuesday night. Either way, we found a bar with great karaoke and somewhat befriended some locals and got a taste of what going out on a Tuesday night in Bangor is like.
All for now, more to come later! Cheerio