Bright, cheerful Carlingford.
This is a road... This one isn't wide enough for two cars so there are periodic pull outs so you can move over if a car is coming.
Crossing into Northern Ireland is no big deal--there isn't even a checkpoint. The main thing is that everything changed back to miles from kilometers so now I am converting km/hr to mph as the car is in km. People drive just as beserk, roads are just as narrow.
The thing I find really interesting is that Northern Ireland has an air of...neglect? Maybe that's it. Just an air of not being loved so much. At least this bit of it. Except then there's these huge new houses so someone's making money. But the towns seem a bit rundown, even ones that have had a makeover. The roads are a bit worse. Everything seems a little grittier. And there's something funny about the money. Technically they use pound sterling but they don't have British pound sterling, it's an Irish one. Lonely Planet says no one wants the Irish one outside of Northern Ireland.
The Mourne Mountains, where I spent much of the day, are gorgeous even if they do look rather Wyomigish (kinda bare in places and stark, and red pines). I did part of the coastal trail and a bunch in the mountains. Every corner has high mountain meadows or sea views. The Mournes feel rather less inhabited than elsewhere as well. The UK does seem to be more interested in local tourism as there were picnicking places and more sign boards than I have seen so far in the republic. I took some photos but I don't think they do it justice. The Mournes were their own kingdom, mostly cut off from the rest of Ireland, because they are hard to get into and over. The coast road is a very recent invention. I'm guessing most coming and going was done by boat. They are haunting and beautiful especially covered in fog as they were today.
Continuing up the Mourne coastal road one comes to the Lecale peninsula, a little visited area in the heart of St Patrick lore. Apparently he landed on the Lecale when he first came back to Ireland to convert it. I stopped at two sets of ruins, one a church that from long after his time and the other a well where he is said to have spent the night scourging himself. That early Christian God was sure a demanding one. Had to hurt yourself and also live in the most out of the way places ever. Except I'm not sure how living in the most remote and weather challenged places would help the goal of converting people. It's a good thing I'm not Christian, as I'm pretty sure that God would get tired of me wanting logic quick!
This is St Johns Point church. It is darling and tiny, smaller than our studio space at home. The Irish Sea is in the background. Ir would make a perfect art studio with a bit of sympathetic renovation.
The eye well at Streull Well...supposedly heals eye ailments. I made sure to rinse my eyes.
This is the limb well where you can wash limbs in need of healing. And yes, I put my knee in it! I'm sure it is better already. 🙃
This is the whole enclosure with a filter on it. Close by is the drinking well (closed off), probably the oldest building in site with a conical roof made of stone slabs like that at Newgrange. In the middle distance is the eye well which is built in Leitrim style and farther away is the bathhouse with the limb well and also apparently a bathing room that you can't get into. The signs say there is some pretty fancy underground channeling of water going on to move it from the stream to these places (the stream is just over the wall to the left). There was also a church which may have never been finished but which would have straddled the stream:
You can see part of that here and here's the other side of the church. Amazing that something unfinished can stand from the 13th century.
The speculation is that this site was holy long before St Patrick took it upon himself to Christianise it.
I ended the day in Downpatrick, a larger town with St Patrick's cathedral. I don't care for the town which has a vaguely threatening feel to me--something about how everything is shut down (bars, garage doors over all shops) and a bit run down too. But I found a nice room above a bar (kitchen actually and two floors up) and had a good dinner. Also I really have no idea how anyone is supposed to know how to find streets or anything. I drove past this place twice trying to find it.
Tomorrow holds more St Patrick and probably Belfast although I'm not feeling cities right now.
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