Bleaklow, Pennine Way - February 2020

In February I went up into the Peak District to go for a run and I found myself heading towards the Dark Peak and the Snake Pass.  It was a beautiful morning and as I drove past Ladybower Dam there was a bit of low mist hanging over the dam and it looked beautiful if a little cold.

Ladybower Dam

I parked the car where the Pennine Way crosses the road and set off northwards on the trail towards Bleaklow.  This is one of the most well known trails in the UK stretching from Derbyshire up to the Scottish Borders. It is a fairly popular trail and even at this early hour on a weekday in February there were several cars already parked at the trail crossing.  It was quite cold and the ground was frozen which made for a nice solid footing despite the occasional ice that could be a little treacherous.

The Pennine Way north from Snake Pass

The trail crosses fairly difficult terrain being a peat moorland with frequent drainages that cut through the peat bogs.  That being said the trail is very well maintained and it forms an easy path through the moor. I was surprised to find some sections paved with massive flagstones.

Paved Trail

 I had heard of the many aircraft wreckages in the Peak District and I knew there was one nearby this section of trail on a hill called Higher Shelf Stones.  I decided to take a look and so a couple of miles or so up the trail I headed off trail to the nearby summit of the hill. Leaving the trail it then became clear what a difficult terrain this moorland is to navigate.  A low brush of heather and grasses cut by drainages with muddy swampy bottoms.

Higher Shelf Stones

The plane wreck on the top of Higher Shelf Stones was of an American B-29 Superfortress.  Quite a big plane, same model as the Enola Gay which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  It crashed in November 1948 while on a short 25 minute flight from Lincolnshire (Scampton) to Liverpool (Burtonwood).  It was apparently very foggy and they must have been very unlucky as the crash site is right at the top of Higher Shelf Stones which itself is not a particularly high mountain.  Anyway all 13 crew members were killed and the wreckage was strewn over the top of the hill. 

The Crash Site

I was surprised how some 72 years later there is still a lot of wreckage at the site.  Lots of aluminium body and then the more massive engine pieces. It was strange to see so much metal just lying around at the top of the hill.  There was a marker identifying the site on a metal plaque and there were signs of recent memorials with a group of red poppies and small wooden crosses.  Apparently every year there is a small memorial service at the site.  

Memorials at the Crash Site

There is no significant pathway to the site as far as I could see.  It just requires a scramble up the side of the hill. On the way back down I took a slightly different route down towards the Pennine Way Trail and rather quickly got disoriented in the bottom of a gully.  I knew that somewhere to my east I would encounter the trail but it just goes to show how quickly one could become lost up there even on a clear sky day.

View over the west side of the hill

Looking back at the hill of Higher Shelf Stones you realize that the crash site was so close to the top of what is really just a very modest hill.  It must have been very unlucky for an aircraft to hit near the top.  If they had been only a few feet higher they would have been looking down onto the valley and Manchester below.

Once back on the trail I turned back south to the road and to my car.  One of these days I should do the entire way but that is 268 miles and I am not sure I am up for that anymore.

As usual there are more photos here.

Beverley, Yorkshire - February 2020

In February my step sister, step-sister in-law and myself met for lunch in the small Yorkshire town of Beverley.   I had never been there before and was surprised to find it had a lovely old town center with not just one but two magnificent churches, Beverley Minster and St Mary’s Church.  The town was obviously much more significant in its past than it is now and apparently in the Middle Ages it was the 11th largest town in England.

St Mary's Church, Beverley

I parked in the Market Square and went over to the nearby church thinking it was the Minster because it was quite large and impressive.  I was however informed that it was not the Minster but in fact St Mary’s Church. The Minster, which is even bigger and more impressive, is on the other side of the town.  St Mary’s though is a wonderful church and I spent some time wandering around inside. There are some beautiful stained glass windows dating from the Victorian era. A ceiling painted with the constellations of the stars.  Beautiful carvings in both wood and stone. Particularly interesting was a colorful carving of a group of minstrels on one of the columns. Apparently the Guild of Minstrels had its northern headquarters in Beverley back in the day.

Interior, St Mary's Church

The Minstrels in St Mary's Church

I also learned a bit more about misericords.  I first came across them on my recent visit to Manchester Cathedral but there were some more nice ones in St Mary’s.  The name sounds to me more like a piece of music or an incantation but a misericord is a type of folding seat in a choir stall that can be folded down to provide a rest for clergy and choir while they appear to be still standing.  Most essential for a long church service. The other unusual thing about misericords is that they have carvings on the underside of the seat. Often not religious but more whimsical.

Misericords

One thing that I didn’t pay much attention to was the Memorial Door, a carved wooden door by the quite famous Robert “Mouseman” Thompson.  Another carved object I missed was the 1325 carving of a rabbit in the Sacristy door that allegedly was the inspiration for the illustrations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.  It's a shame I didn’t read the guide book more carefully when I was in the church.

Beverley Minster

The ornate entry to the Minster

The Minster which I visited after lunch is even larger and more impressive than St Mary’s.  It’s exterior is quite ornate with a beautifully carved doorway. Inside the nave is immense and there are so many intricate and ornate carvings.  Where did all these craftsmen come from and who can do this kind of work these days? There is an organ with ornate painted pipes; the choir stalls and chancel has the most remarkable wooden carvings; there are Misericords here too and they have carvings on the underside of the seat, but not as impressive as those in St Mary’s.

The Altar and Reredos

The altar is relatively modest but behind it there is a screen of beautiful carvings.  I believe they call this a reredos. Down one side there are a series of small sculptures of musicians - perhaps again something to do with the Guild of Minstrels.

One of the many Minstrel Carvings

What a beautiful town Beverley is with its lovely old town center and its two fine churches.  It even has a racetrack (for horse racing). Well worth a visit.

There are more photos of the churches here.

Belfast, Northern Ireland - February 2020

River Lagan in Belfast

I arrived in Belfast on the train after spending a couple of days in Dublin during February of 2020. From the Lanyon Place Station it was a short walk to my hotel, the not at all bad Malmaison Hotel.   On the way over to the hotel I walked past the St George’s Market. An old market with a wonderful old facade which still operates today though perhaps more as a tourist destination being only open at the weekend.  From there I crossed to the banks of the River Lagan and the very modern Waterfront Hall.

St George's Market

After checking in there were a couple of hours of daylight remaining so I went out to explore a little.  Just up the street from the hotel was the impressive Albert Memorial Clock. One of many Victorian edifices in the UK and Commonwealth commemorating Prince Albert.  Nearby is "The Big Fish", a ceramic tiled fish on the side of the Lagan. The blue tiles depict elements from Belfast’s history.

Albert Memorial Clock

The Big Fish

Titanic Museum and one of the H and W Cranes

Across the river you could see the new Titanic Area with its impressive new Titanic Museum building and the even more impressive Harlan and Wolf shipyard (where the Titanic was built) with its massive, but no longer used, big yellow cranes, Samson and Goliath. 

Walking further out to the north on the west bank of the Lagan there is a fair bit of new development going on. Old warehouses converted to apartments, shiny new office buildings.  In my youth I never heard anything positive about Belfast.  It was the time of “The Troubles” and nothing would make you want to come here.  Now I see lots of signs of a thriving city.  

The Merchant Hotel

I walk through the main shopping area of town over to the City Hall which is a most impressive building.  Victorian era and quite magnificent. The surrounding buildings in the adjacent streets are also impressive and show that even then this was a major city.  For dinner that night I stop into one of the finest looking old hotels I could imagine, The Merchant. A truly majestic building with a beautiful old interior that I learned was built as the headquarters of the Ulster Bank in the mid 1800's and then only in 2006 converted to a hotel.  I went inside sat in the ornate bar for a drink (quite expensive) and then moved over to the even more ornate dining room for dinner (quite reasonable).

Belfast Cathedral

Next morning I was up early and out to again explore the city.  The Albert Memorial Clock again, the Custom's House, and Belfast Cathedral. Then over towards the Victoria Square shopping center.  Just outside the shopping center is the Jaffe Memorial Fountain, an unusual and out of place object that was erected by an Otto Jaffe a German Jew who emigrated to Belfast in the mid 1800’s and who eventually became Mayor of the city.  It is a memorial to Otto’s father who died in Nice but whose body was shipped to Belfast for burial, the first Jew to be buried in Belfast cemetery.

The Jaffe Memorial Fountain

The new Victoria shopping mall is just the same as all the others in the world today with all the same shops you get in England.  The shopping mall does have one redeeming feature however, an impressive viewing tower above the mall that you can climb up to and view the surrounding city.  That is worth a look for sure.

Belfast City Hall

Further up the road is the City Hall again and this time it is open, at least partially.  The interior is just as spectacular as the outside and there was a nice exhibition about the city, its history and its people.  

The Grand Opera House

On Great Victoria Street there is the Grand Opera House.  Well known to all Van Morrison fans as it is pictured on the cover of his live album recorded there.  It is a beautiful building. 

The Crown Liquor Saloon

 Just across the road is the Crown Liquor Saloon.  A magnificent example of an old Victorian pub or gin palace.  The pub has wonderful tile, stained glass and woodwork. It is actually owned by the National Trust but it is still operated as a pub.  I should have stayed for a drink but perhaps not at 10 in the morning.

Back on the other side of the street is the Europa Hotel.  This fairly recent 1970’s hotel has the dubious reputation of being the most bombed hotel in the world having survived 36 bomb attacks during “The Troubles”.

Clifton House

I checked departure times for the airport bus in the adjacent terminal and then set off to walk some of the neighborhoods.  Due north of the Europa is the Clifton House a fine example of Georgian architecture. Then just beyond this I found myself in the New Lodge area.  This, as I remember from my youth, was an ardent Republican area and even today there is no confusing it as anything but that. The murals on the walls, the graffiti, the flags flying and the memorials to casualties of the conflicts all identify the place as a fiercely Catholic Republican area.

New Lodge Mural

Wall murals have become a significant part of many neighborhoods in Belfast.  I don’t know if they started with the troubles but they all seem to be related to that period and they are often quite militaristic.  In addition to the murals there is the odd piece of recent graffiti stating “Britain out of Ireland” or “End Forced Strip Searches” or “Join Saoradh”.  I thought "The Troubles" were diminished since the Good Friday Agreement but they are certainly not over and they are not being forgotten.

New Lodge Mural

New Lodge Graffiti

Walking down Antrim Road and then up the Crumlin Road you get to the Crumlin Road Gaol.   Again along with the nearby Shankhill Road and Falls Road are these are names from the news reports of the 60’s and 70’s.  I went in the Crumlin Road Gaol and took the tour. It was an interesting view inside a Victorian Gaol that was actually in use up until 1996 and housed many of the Republican and Unionist prisoners of “The Troubles”.  Eamon De Valera also was a prisoner there, as was Bobby Sands. 

Crumlin Road Gaol

Across the road from the Gaol is the Crumlin Road Courthouse; an impressive building that is now derelict and up for sale (with planning permission for a hotel conversion).  The Gaol and Courthouse are linked by a tunnel to facilitate transfer of prisoners between the two.

The Unionist Neighbourhood

South of Crumlin Road I get into the Shankhill area and this is a Unionist area.  Here the wall murals promote the British military and the ties to the Queen. The flags flown here are all Union Jacks.

After walking up the Shankhill Road for a while I turned south onto Cupar Way which was the location of one of the Belfast Peace Walls.  Walls like this were built to separate the Republican and Unionist communities in the late 60's early 70's. This one still exists today along the side of Cupar Way. It is covered with crude tagging.

Belfast Peace Wall

At the end of the Peace Wall it ran into the Falls Road and I was now back into Catholic territory.  Again here we had murals depicting the Republican point of view. It is here that there is the mural of Bobby Sands the Provisional IRA member who died on hunger strike in 1981 in Long Kesh Prison just outside Belfast.  Incidentally he was for some time in Crumlin Road Gaol and it is there where he was married in the Governor’s office (all a part of the tour).

Bobby Sands Memorial

By then I was tired of walking (over 10 miles according to the iPhone) so I took an Uber over to the other side of the river and the Titanic Museum.  On the way I asked the driver to locate the George Best mural. He was a Belfast boy and a brilliant footballer but he couldn’t handle his alcohol. I saw him once in Aberdeen airport in the 1970’s and he looked terrible.  Somewhere there is quite a large mural of George but we could only fins a small one. Still it was nice to see something not remembering or promoting the Unionist-Republican differences.

George Best

The Titanic area on the other side of the Lagan is part of a new development near the old Harlan and Wolf shipyards where the Titanic was built.  It has a new stadium and new office buildings and restaurants and of course the Titanic Museum. I walked around but didn’t go into the museum.  It looks a lot more interesting from the outside and I didn't really have the time.

The Titanic Museum

In dry dock near the museum is the White Star Line's Nomadic, the last remaining White Star Line vessel (other than the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean).  The Nomadic was used to ferry passengers from Cherbourg to the Titanic before it left on its fateful voyage, the Titanic being too big for the harbour at Cherbourg.

The Nomadic

That was the end of my tour of Belfast.  I walked back to the hotel, picked up my bag, and walked to the bus station for the ride to the airport and back home to England.

Here are some more Belfast photos.

Dublin, Ireland - February 2020

In February I took a break from clearing out my mother’s house and escaped to Ireland for a quick look around the cities of Dublin and Belfast.  I flew from Birmingham to Dublin, on RyanAir of course, for next to nothing ($20). In Dublin a quick bus trip into town where I got the chance to be anxious about two Chinese looking tourists with face masks getting on the bus.  In these Coronovirus days people like that are noticed and wouldn’t you know they came and sat right next to me on the bus. I am sure I will be fine.

I was staying out in Dun Laoghaire, the passenger ferry port for Dublin, so from the center of town I got the DART train out that way.  It is a very nice journey out on the side of the bay to Dun Laoghaire, the train goes right alongside the water. My hotel for the night was the Royal Maritime Hotel, a nice old building housing what was once (and perhaps still is) a fine hotel.  It sits above the harbour and is perhaps one of the more impressive buildings in the town. That is with the exception of the fine new library, the dlr lexicon. This very modern building is just in front of the hotel by the harbour. 

The Royal Maritime Hotel

After checking in, I walked around the town which, to be honest, is neither large nor particularly attractive.  To escape the cold, I paid a visit to the National Maritime Museum of Ireland. Housed in an old church it is a collection of maritime artifacts and model ships (some of them in bottles).  It was interesting but, for such a seafaring nation, I found it a bit of an anticlimax. There was a presentation on the torpedoing of the Royal Mail Steamer, the Leinster, just one month before the end of the First World War. Some 501 people died onboard the vessel when it was hit by two torpedoes just outside the Dun Laoghaire harbor.  For the number of fatalities this sinking got very little attention.

The library and the church hosting the National Maritime Museum

Next morning I headed into Dublin again on the DART train.  In the city I decided to take the Hop on Hop Off tour. As I was leaving for Belfast in the mid afternoon, I did not have a lot of time so I did the whole tour without hopping on or hopping off.  I sat the entire time out on the back of an open top double decker bus under blue skies but really windy and cold weather. By the end I was chilled to the bone,

The Customs House

Despite the cold it was a good overview of the city.  We started in O’Connell Street and off we went… the Dublin writer’s museum celebrating the likes of Shaw, Beckett, Swift, Wilde, Joyce and Behan (quite an impressive collection of authors); the impressive General Post Office where the declaration of independence was read;  the Customs House; the very haunting Famine Memorial; the Georgian Merrion Square; the National Gallery; Leinster House, the seat of parliament; Grafton Street; Trinity College and College Green; Dublin City Hall; Christ Church Cathedral; St Patrick's Cathedral; the Guinness Brewery and Storehouse; the Museum of Modern Art; Kilmainham Gaol; Phoenix Park which is the largest urban park in Europe; and finally down the north bank of the Liffey past the Jameson Distillery to our starting point in O’Connell Street.   

Dublin Cathedral

Entrance to the Guinness Brewery

O'Connell's Statue on O'Connell Street

The trip was quite a lot to take in from the top of a bus but it served its purpose of giving me a great overview of the key sites in the city.  It must have been 15 years ago that I was last in Dublin (to run the Dublin Marathon) and I must admit I don't have much of a memory of the city or the marathon course for that matter.  I still will have to come back for a more leisurely look around the place.

The Samuel Beckett Bridge

After the bus trip I walked over to Connolly Station to buy a train ticket to Belfast.  I then had a couple of hours to kill before the train so I walked out to the Liffey and walked up the north side towards the Samuel Beckett Bridge.  This bridge is a modern one designed by Calatrava, the same man that designed the very similar looking Sundial Bridge in Redding, California.

The Famine Memorial

To the west of the bridge is the Famine Memorial which is a haunting group of statues commemorating the Irish Famine of the 1840’s and the departure of so many Irish families for the United States.  Quite moving.

I then had just enough time to visit the Irish Emigration Museum before catching my train.  This museum had apparently won awards for one of the best new museums in Ireland but alas I did not share that view.  It was modern and full of videos and interactive presentations. The trouble with them is that you don’t know when you step into a room showing a video if that is the beginning or middle or end of the presentation.  You have to wait to get oriented and then possibly sit through it again to get the main message. I find that frustrating. As for the interactive displays there are so many of them with so much material that you never know which is the best one and you simply can’t work through each and every one - there’s not enough time.   A thumbs down from me.

I went back to the station and caught my train to Belfast.  A nice modern train and a reasonable price too. Unlike the English trains they don’t penalize you for buying a ticket at the last minute.  The journey up to Belfast takes just over 2 hours and passes along the coast for a while and then inland through some nice countryside. You are totally unaware of when you cross the border to Northern Ireland and I wonder if it will remain the same post Brexit.

Here are some more Dublin photos.