Thursday Doors – Virtual Road Trip

Welcome to this week’s Thursday Doors and another virtual road trip. I’m so glad I snapped as many photos as I did in December, when we were free to travel more than five kilometres. There are lots of interesting buildings dotted around the Glens of Antrim and on a scenic drive I captured some old, some new and some completely derelict. This first image is of a typical older farmhouse with a newer one just in front of it. I’m not usually a fan of newer bungalows but I like the way this one has been designed – simple and understated. A modern day version of a cottage that sits well in the surrounding landscape.

The above house has a nice bit of character to it, with dormer windows and a neat little porch.

Of course, I couldn’t pass up a cottage with a red door, could I? Or a red roof, like the one in the next shot.

It wasn’t long before I came across another red door, one that may not have been used for a long time.

Another red roof peeked out from behind the hedges. I imagine there’s a door in there, somewhere.

Neither roof nor door in the next one but the stonework looks good and solid. I think this one would be worth renovating.

This is or was an animal shed or stables. It looks as if it’s still in use, with a decent enough roof.

The next photograph was taken from quite a distance so it’s a bit blurry. I hope to visit this old friary on my next trip and I’ll take some closer shots. It dates from the late 1400’s and has an interesting history, so definitely well worth a visit.

The scenery on a drive through the Glens of Antrim is so beautiful, even when there is no sea view nor a tree in sight. Loughareema, or The Vanishing Lake, is on the coast road just a few miles from Ballycastle, where some of my family live. It’s a chalk sinkhole that sometimes gets blocked up by peat washing into it, particularly during heavy rainfall. When the plug clears, the lake quickly drains underground and vanishes. The modern road is high enough to avoid flooding, which wasn’t the case with the old one. During a flood in 1898, Colonel John Magee McNeille was in a hurry to catch a train and urged his coachman to drive through the lake. However, when the two horses were up to their bellies in cold water they refused to go any further and the coachman used his whip to try and force them on. This made the horses rear up and the men and animals all lost their lives in the middle of The Vanishing Lake.

The water was gone while I was there but you can see a small raised parcel of land at the bottom left of the photograph. This becomes a tiny island when the water fills up and there are some stone cairns on it that visitors have built and added to over the years.

The stone wall in the foreground of this photograph was built on the new road as an added precaution during flooding. Makes sense to me after what happened to the Colonel. Next week’s Thursday Doors will feature the town of Ballycastle, where the virtual road trip ends but there are lots more doors and places to see over on Dan’s blog in the meantime.