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OPEN COUNTRY
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SatÌý 6.10 - 6.35am
Thurs 1.30 - 2.00pm (rpt) |
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Local people making their corner of rural Britain unique |
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This week |
SaturdayÌý6 OctoberÌý
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Tucked away in the north east corner of Northern Ireland lies the dramatic landscape of the nine , which sweep down from a high plateau eastwards towards the North Channel. It is this mountainous moorland which has largely separated the area from the rest of Northern Ireland, making it ‘a place set apart’ so from time immemorial the people living there have had a closer affinity to Scotland - which at some points is just under 12 miles away!
Helen’s explorations in the company of writer and naturalist Philip Watson, start in Glenariff, known as the ‘Queen of the Glens’, a classic U shaped valley created by a glacier. Her next stop is Glenarm the most southerly of the Glens where she meets two people with strong connections to Scotland. The family of the Hon Hector McDonnell came over in Norman times and they are still the current owners of . Jackie Wilson’s father came over from Scotland in the 1930s to be Head Gardener at the castle and Jackie’s friendship with the present Earl of Antrim (Hector’s brother) is as strong now as it was when they played together as boys.
Travelling north along the scenic Antrim Coast Road, Helen passes through the village ofÌý at the foot of Glencoy which boasts the Londonderry Arms Hotel formerly owned by Sir Winston Churchill.Ìý is another picturesque village which sits at the foot of Glendun and there Randal McDonnell shows Helen the row of cottages with their unusual Cornish style architecture (the work of Clough William-Ellis) and now owned by the National Trust.
But no visit to the Glens is complete without taking to the water. Tom McLaughlin of Red Bay Boats shows her Tor Bay, close to the northernmost glens, Glenshesk and Glentaise, and the nearest point from Ireland to Scotland. Racing along the coastline in a rib boat it’s easy to appreciate how the nine glens separated by huge headlands, each have their own distinctive landscape, natural history, culture and music. |
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If you know a special place in the U.K. countryside rich in natural history, history and landscape features then pleaseÌýdoÌýÌýcontact us |
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