Co. Down - July 22, 2009

Today, we headed off for Hillsborough. On route, we stopped at M&S and bought our lunch. We were going to have a walk around the town. It is very pretty. We stopped at the Tourist Information and looked at the law courts there. It turned out to be such a beautiful day, that I decided we should take a drive down the west side of Strangford Lough. We set off and as we reached Ballynahinch, I realised I had missed my turning and was headed in the wrong direction.


We changed our plans and headed towards Downpatrick. It rained off and on but when we reached Inch Abbey, it stopped. We had a short walk around the ruins. It is very picturesque and quiet, in the distance you can see the steeple of Down Cathedral. This cathedral is believed to be the burial place of St. Patrick.








From here I decided to have a quick detour to an ancient monument I knew of from a previous trip, Ballynoe Stone Circle. I found it easily and we decided to take our lunch with us and eat amongst the stones. It is a long walk down an old sunken lane. Detta was very dubious about the whole thing. When we reached the gate to go in the field, there were cows, at least 15. I went in anyways and gave them a wide berth, in case of any problems.


Detta was so upset but the last time I was here it was raining. I had a nice walk around the circle but obviously we didn't have lunch with the cows, there were too many flies. By the time I got back to Detta, she was in tears.

We continued on to Clough, where we stopped and ate our lunch. The sandwiches were delicious. Detta had a BLT and I had a plain cheese but added coleslaw to it.

We stopped at Dundrum Castle. It was a bit of a walk up to the main level. From there you can go up the keep, but it is a very narrow circular stone staircase. I took my time. Detta did not come up with me. The views from up there are great.

After this we headed back to Patricia's house. She made us a lovely curry for dinner. Even Valerie's little girls ate some. We dropped by Alan's house to see Katherine. Katherine was leaving early Thursday morning for a holiday in the sun. She talked so fast, I could hardly understand what she said. After this we popped by Barbara's house. The baby is sleeping much better.