Finishing Up Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland was definitely a highlight of the trip for us.  It was less crowded and seemed to have lots of unique attractions to see and do.  Don't get me wrong - all of Ireland was beautifully green and blue - but, Northern Ireland was more laid back and we enjoyed to get off the beaten path.  On our way out to Belfast we made our way to one last castle of the trip.  And this one was probably the most complete/well-preserved castle we saw on the second half of our trip.

Dunluce Castle was built right on the shoreline and the furthest side of it was actually built off the cliff.  When we were in the visitor's center, they said that back in the day when the castle was actually being used, part of it fell off into the ocean because of it being so close to the edge.  It had a few people in that portion of the castle, too, and they went along with it.  A lot of people ask why none of the castles, churches, etc. had roofs on them.  They actually did have roofs when they were built/used, but they were made of wood.  Wood deteriorates a lot faster than stone so that's why they are missing.  In the case of churches/abbeys/etc., Oliver Cromwell removed the roof so that the inhabitants would leave.  Pretty tricky.

From here, we left for Belfast.  It was about an 1.5 hour drive to get to the city.  Once there, our first stop was to see the Titanic Museum.

Belfast is where the Titanic was built to set sail.  The museum had several floors to it and talked about the company who built it, the labor conditions, what went into building the ship and, of course, the aftermath of the tragedy.  I think my favorite part of the museum was reading mini-biographies of the passengers of the ship who died and who survived the crash.  

 Replica of Titanic

 Life boat

 I'm the King of the World!

You may or may not be able to tell, but this is where the Titanic sat while it was being built.  They have the markings of the ship's outline so you can get a perspective of just how big the ship was.  Also, the corners/height of the museum was built to show how tall the ship was.  Spoiler alert:  it was enormous.

After we finished up at the museum, there were a few prehistoric, natural sites we wanted to stop at.  These weren't popular tour stops, but kinda cool nonetheless.

 Giant's Ring - prehistoric burial site.  They also had chariot races around it and the entire site looks like a grassy race track.  

Farm from the 500s.  They would hide down underground for protection and you can still get down there.  

Proleek  Dolmen - another ancient tomb.  How on Earth did they stack all these tall, heave stones?  Sidenote: Legend has it if you make a wish, throw a rock on top of the dolmen and it stays, your wish will come true.  Unbeknownst to either of us, we both wished for the same thing and guess what arrived 3 weeks later?  Moral of the story: if you really, really want something, fly to Belfast and get a rock to stay on top of this thing.  Ben is proof :)

That filled our entire day so we just drove to our next bed and breakfast and called it a night.  Tomorrow - Dublin!

Adventure Day

Our only full day in Northern Ireland consisted of adventure and doing as much as we could squeeze in.  We were both looking forward to many of the activities planned in Northern Ireland so we got an early start and began with Carrick a Rede Bridge - or, Rope Bridge.  It's a bridge made out of rope that leads to a small island.  Back in the day fisherman would put up and cross this bridge in order to get to better fishing.  Now it's not used for that reason - just for people to say they crossed it and to get to some good views.

The day we were there there were 25 mph winds which made the bridge sway a good bit while we were going across.  The day before there were 45 mph winds and they actually had to close it down for safety reasons.  

Again, this was something I wanted to do and Matt just kinda went along with it, but I think he enjoyed it as much as I did.  He's not a fan of heights, but I think it's worth it once you get to the other side.

 A sigh of relief - it was quite windy!

That's Scotland out there in the background.

After we got our adrenaline rush for the day, we stopped over at another castle down the road called Kinbane Castle.  This one was pretty far down the mountainside and I thought I was going to die getting to it.  I was completely exhausted after all the uneven steps, but it was very pretty once we got to our destination.  And now I have thighs of steel because of it.

 See that pretty waterfall on the side of the cliff?

See how high we are over the castle.  Yeah, that's how many uneven steps we had to go down and then back up.  Oh, dear.

The next stop of the day was to see Giant's Causeway.  This was one of the first things we knew we wanted to do when we were planning the vacation.  It's a shoreline of the North Atlantic and it's filled with thousands of hexagonal-shaped pillars lining the coast.  It's just so bizarre to see and crazy how it formed this way.  They believe it's how the lava cooled on the rock and that's why it's shaped the way it is, but I think that's speculation.  Anyways, it's not man-made which makes it a pretty incredible sight.

 Here's a close-up of what the pillars look like.

Aerial view of a section of shoreline.  You can see how pixalated it looks because of the shape of the stone.

I'm so glad our Bed and Breakfast was just across the street and we were able to see this natural phenomenon.  We hiked up a mountainside after to get these aerial shots.  We considered not doing that because we were so tired from the morning hike, but we were so glad we did.  We made it higher than the birds were flying!  The views were awesome!

The final stop of the day was Bushmills Distillery.  It was just a 10 minute drive down the road and we were able to take a tour of the plant.  It was neat to get to see the step-by-step of the process of making whiskey - even if I don't have any interest in drinking it! 

Family History

While Jenn and I were in Ireland, I took the opportunity to do some genealogy research; Jenn was nice enough to put up with me doing it.

To start with, my great-grandfather was David Lawson and he was my Lawson ancestor who came to America.  Records show he arrived in the US on 23 Oct 1891 at the age of 18 on board the Britannic, owned by White Star Line (not the Britannic that was a sister ship of the Titanic).  You can see he traveled with one bag and had a berth forward.  He lists his occupation as a farmer from Leitrim, but I think this may be a mistake and should be Antrim.

I think we’ve always known his parents were Hugh and Ellen Lawson, who were buried in Newtown Crommelin, County Antrim, Ireland.  I started researching Hugh a few months ago.  I found him in Griffith’s Valuation living a few miles up the road from Newtown Crommelin in the parish of Magheramore, south of present day Ballycastle.  Griffith’s Valuation was a taxing document used by the English government and made between 1840 and 1865.  Hugh is listed as living in 1861 and it shows the fields he was leasing to farm and what he was subleasing to other people.  The nice thing about Griffith’s Valuation is that it has an accompanying map, so you can see down to the building where people were.  By matching that map with present day landmarks you can find where things were.

Griffith’s Valuation Map – you can find the present day version by going to google maps and searching for 90 Capecastle Road, Ballycastle, Antrim, United Kingdom.

You can look at the two maps and see that it looks to me like only one of the buildings still exists – one of the long buildings under #8 on the Griffith’s map can be seen in Google Maps and in the picture below.

The records show that these buildings were subleased by Hugh to another person – even if he wasn’t using them, they certainly would have been familiar to him.

The fields listed as #7 are in these pictures – they were being leased by Hugh and three others to be farmed.  It doesn’t look like they have changed much since the 1860s.

Another useful piece of information comes from Hugh and Ellen’s marriage license.  It indicates Hugh’s father was named Archibald and was a farmer.  Ellen’s father is listed as Matthew Cathcart and is also a farmer.  They were married May 29^th, 1857 in Armoy in the Church of Ireland Church.  This is the church we went to seen below – it is the Church of Ireland Church in Armoy and was built in the 1840s, so while I don’t know, it seems reasonable to assume this is where they were married.  You can find more information about the church at http://www.roundtowers.org/armoy/index.html

The tower beside the church is a round tower which is a common feature of monastaries in Ireland.  It is likely from the 10^th century and is the only example in Northern Ireland.

Hugh left the Magheramore location in 1885 according to an update of Griffith’s evaluation below.  This means David was likely born in the Magheramore location on the map, which is born out by his birth certificate which locates his birth in Ballycastle.

Hugh and family moved to Newtown Crommelin, a few miles to the Southeast.  They aren’t in the valuation anymore which is likely because they were living with the Carsons in town.  Jenn and I went to Newtown Crommelin to try to find Hugh and Ellen’s grave. 

Just off of the main street is the remnants of the Church of Ireland church.  The foundations are still there, covered in grass.

Beside the foundation is the graveyard which had about 10-15 graves.  Hugh and Ellen’s grave is one of the closest to the foundation.  The grave reads as follows-

“Erected by Ellen Lawson, of Newtowncrommelin. In memory of her beloved husband Hugh Lawson, who died 9th march 1892, aged 71 years. Also the above named Ellen Lawson, who died 28th February 1908, aged 72 years. "Here rests." Until the day break and the shadows flee away.”

Here are some pictures of Newtown Crommelin today – Hugh’s will lists him as a Publican so it’s tempting to think that the Inn is his old inn/pub, but there’s no way of knowing.  It was closed when we visited – it might be closed permanently.

Overall it was pretty successful.  I can’t find anymore information on Archibald Lawson, Hugh’s father, so that may be a dead end, but I think I can find some on Matthew Cathcart, so I’ll probably see what I can find out about him next.

Fittingly, as we left Newtown Crommelin we saw a rainbow.  It seemed to confirm that we had been in the right place.



The Luck of the Irish

The next morning we woke up early to drive over to Dingle.  If we ever go back to Ireland, I would definitely want to spend more time in this area.  It is incredibly scenic and there was more to do  in Dingle then we hand time for.

Our reason for driving to Dingle was to go horseback riding.  Neither one of us had ever been horseback riding and I saw it in our tour book and thought it would be super cool to do in Ireland.  My goal was to do things that we hadn't ever done, couldn't do back at home, or things we wouldn't normally do.  Horseback riding seem to fit the bill.  I think this was something Matt wouldn't have done on his own, but I think he's super glad he did.

Matt had Captain as his horse.  The horses were a lot bigger than I expected, but they were nice and easy on us.  While we were on the trail ride the order went: guide, Matt, Jenn.  And let's just say that Matt's horse was having some digestive issues so I got a whiff of lots of smells along the way.  Poor Captain.

King was my horse and he was a piggly wiggly.  We were told if our horses started to munch on wildlife along the ride to redirect them.  I had to do a LOT of redirecting.  The ride was so much fun and probably top three things we did in Ireland.  As we were approaching the top of the mountain, it started hailing on us!  It was so windy and cold and the pellets of hail were just beating down on us.  But once we got over the crest of the mountain, it instantly stopped and was nice again.  So bizarre.

While on the ride, we got some really nice scenic photos of the area.  

After leaving the stables, we started making our way towards Northern Ireland.  We knew we couldn't get there in one day so we made a pit stop along the way.  Bunratty Castle is what we chose.  

It's a medieval castle that is decorated how it would have back in the day.  In addition to the castle, there's a village that depicts what life would've looked like during that time.  

 Matt on his throne

 I just thought these wagons were so cute.  

 This is what the town would've looked like.  Isn't it so cute?

 I belong in this barn.

 On our way to the next Bed and Breakfast, we saw this rainbow.  I had Matt pull over on the side of the interstate so that we could get a picture.  Isn't that amazing?!