Northern Ireland 4 – Tyrone

 Sunday 20th July 2025

Set off from my extra night in Glen Park just up the road to Gortin Glen Forest Park. 

This is all slightly confusing for me and for Google Map, but if I think of the Forest Park as the walking area plus trails and huge playground while Glen Park is the caravanning site, then add on a restaurant / wedding venue and a dinosaur park, then it all seems to make more sense.

The trails are good and well away from the car park and playground. I choose one marked "strenuous" and though I feel it on the slopes the woodland areas are calming and the walk satisfying. On return to the café I find I'm not far short of my 10,000 steps / 5 mile target and I'm bound to reach it by walking back to the van. My shift away from Swatragh has proved a winner and today is my first day without driving as the campsite is virtually within the Forest Park.

And so a restful afternoon, reading, content that I've ticked off 5 miles in Tyrone. And as a treat I indulge in a bar meal at the restaurant, washed down with the obligatory Guinness.

Northern Ireland 3 - Derry

 Saturday 19th July 2025

Wake up on the building site which now has ten vans in total which means the limited loos and showers are undergoing intense use but at least the number of vans makes the place look slightly more of a camp site. It's an unloading low loader that wakes me.

Off at 8am aiming for Ness Country Park to do today's walk. Taking a scenic cross-country route I eventually arrive at this woodland area bordering on a river and featuring a waterfall. 

Again I am one of the first arrivals and I stride out heading for the waterfall on one of the well surfaced trails. The whole place is well tended yet feels natural. I see the biggest waterfall in Derry then return to the van for coffee.

As the first trail was short of three miles I head off on a second trail which is a circuit on the other side of the park.

It's remarkably warm and my shirt is soaked but now it's time to head for Londonderry and its famous city walls. 

Derry Walls

A leisurely stroll around the walls is completed in under an hour then back to the van and head for my final destination for the day - Glenpark.

Derry Girls, mural

Some confusion in my mind between Glenpark Caravan site and Glenpark estate but at length I find my pitch, well organised on a leafy site, separated from each other by twee little fences. This is quite different from last night's car park cum building site. I've chosen well by abandoning my second night at Friel's and booking the extra night here.

On the other hand the few campers in the tent area have dinosaurs and their roaring to deal with! There is a dinosaur park right next to their field and the roaring animatronic monsters roar from 9 in the morning until 6 at night. Bonkers!

However there is a restaurant and bar just down the road and I may avail myself of that tomorrow.

Northern Ireland 2 - Antrim

 Friday 18th July 2025

I'm up at 6am and away by 7.30 as I've been told the key to enjoying Giant's Causeway is to arrive early. The weather looks stormy but so far merely showers. It's what makes Ireland so green ....

Along this coast there are several "Airs" where a camper could stop over for free. One is called Portaneevey, with grand views of the rugged Antrim Coast.

I stopped in to see the famous rope bridge out to a sea stack, but it's too early to be open. I might have walked to see it from a distance but my mission is to walk on the Giant's Causeway so I press on. I arrive at 8am and there's not much action so I park in the heritage railway car park and walk up the hill. The Causeway entrance is a tunnel with a car park on one side and a large glass reception building on the other. Drivers must run the gauntlet of the National Trust car park but as a pedestrian I simply stroll through, which is quite liberating.

Down the hill and after twenty minutes here I am on the causeway itself. Not as sensational as some of the heavily treated photographs suggest but certainly unusual, dramatic and appealing. 

So having walked between in and on the pillars I return to the car and find that in my absence they've erected a sign saying I have to pay £10 for the day's parking. As there was no such sign or suggestion on my arrival, and I've only had an hour's parking, I drive off and up to the NT car park, now staffed, where I can make use of my National Trust membership.

Parking up, I go to the reception building for a coffee and while drinking it I hear that a free guided tour is about to begin. Wondering what I might have missed on my self guided wander, I join a group lead by a jolly chap who informs and amuses all the way back to the stones. Our leader also points out where the trail continues around the coast, so this is a great opportunity to extend my walk and to see some of the "organ pipes" which also comprise the stones.

By the time I eventually return to the van, satisfied with my visit, I have exceeded my five mile minimum in Antrim. I drive on to Bushmills, famous for its whisky, and though the tours are booked up, a bottle finds its way into my store cupboard.

My next stop is Friel's Bar and Restaurant. at Swatragh. 

This is a bit of an error on my part. First I drive straight past, not recognising it as a camp site, then eventually realising I find it's a cross between a car park and a building site. Loos and shower are in a portacabin and there is no washing up space. The surface is black gravel and workmen may well be improving the place but currently they are driving noisy machines around the car park. This is not what I was looking for. However it is next to a perfectly good restaurant and bar so I suppose the caravan site is just a poor relation for the time being. Though they could have warned me ....

However, making the best of it I do visit the bar, which seems a good place for a pint of Guinness, and I also visit the adjacent Dr Mooney's House which is a museum to the good doctor who with his wife provided nourishing soup to local people during the famine years. A very good little museum.

Dr Mooney's Famine Pot

A whisky still at Bushmills

Northern Ireland 1

 17th July 2025

It has been hot and sunny for a month or more but the rain begins as I arrive in Cairnryan for the ferry to Larne in Northern Ireland. The ferry takes two hours and I drive off in drizzle looking for the coastal route to the Giant's Causeway. It's an attractive drive in good weather and dramatic even in drizzle. There are cliffs on one side and stray rocks on the other. Some are the remains of old sea stacks thrusting stiffly from the grey sea.

I arrive in my chosen camp site, a CL in Armoy, just in time to choose my pitch ahead of some garrulous French folks in two large motorhomes. An hour and a half later they have moved four times and held endless discussions very loudly while I have set up, cooked my evening meal and washed up before they have even started.

I'm here to walk for at least five miles in each of the six counties of Northern Ireland. This is to add to the 86 counties of England, Wales and Scotland I have already walked. More Details here.

This first day was to get into position, the campsite being only a few miles from the coast where I plan to walk tomorrow. Here's the overall plan showing my route from Larne generally anti clockwise.

Kirtling

Kirtling, together with Kirtling Green and Kirtling Towers, is a scattered settlement in the south-eastern edge of the English county of Cambridgeshire. It is about half an hour from our base in Cambridge.  

We parked in the car park of the village hall and walked along good tracks, field edges, past woods and fields using this rough map (courtesy of Stapleford Strollers)

The Red Lion at Kirtling was unavailable for food so we drove a little further and enjoyed hospitality at The Three Blackbirds in Woodditton.

We were lucky with the weather and had a relaxing morning.

Chilterns

 Great Missenden, Chilterns, Buckinghamshire

April 2025

The Chilterns are rolling hills, a chalk escarpment, woodland and a welcoming environment for walkers.

We stayed at The Nag's Head on the edge of Great Missenden, which is a good central place for exploring the area. We previously visited Buckinghamshire here and here. We spent three comfortable nights (despite some squeaky floors) and ate extremely well at their restaurant. A limited range of beers (Marlow's Rebellion was good) but both were most acceptable. Very helpful service throughout.

Nag's Head, Great Missenden

Tuesday April 1st

We drove to Wendover and had lunch at the Shoulder of Mutton.

In the afternoon we planned a short walk (Walking World 4235) from Wendover and then on a short distance to Great Missenden but because of the disruption by HS2 we drove to Coombe Hill and did a circular walk from there.

Wendover Station Bridge

At the Boer War monument on Coombe Hill. We visited this last in 2006.

Evening meal at the Nag's Head. Very fresh trout from the chalk stream.

Wednesday April 2nd

A circular walk from Great Missenden with lunch at the Cock and Rabbit at Lee Green, part of the way round.

Delightful walks through the woods with dappled shade and emerging bluebells

The Cock and Rabbit

Spacious views spoiled only by gouged out scars from the HS2 workings and inevitable rerouting of walks. Never mind, we'll save 5 minutes to Birmingham. In ten years time.

Visible scars of HS2

Supper was at Cross Keys in Great Missenden, only a short walk from our lodgings.

Thursday April 3rd

A linear walk from Great Missenden to Chesham. (WW8059). Lunch was at The Queen's Head in Chesham. Mainly Thai food, which surprised me (I'm more used to a Thai curry in the evening) but was very good.

We returned by train (Metropolitan Line to Chalfont & Latimer then Chiltern Railways to Great Missenden).

St Mary's Chesham

Timothy Taylor Landlord

Supper would have been at The Green Man in Prestwood but there was some confusion over our booking so we went back to our lodgings and enjoyed another excellent meal at the Nag's Head.

Friday April 4th

A walk in Wendover Woods in the morning. This is a very popular place with running trails, walking routes, "Go Ape" climbing facilities, excellent car parking etc. And on a day such as this a gentle stroll in the shade of woodland and an iron age fort can hardly be bettered.

Our final lunch was at the pleasantly Victorian King's Arms in Tring. Big sandwiches!

Wendover Woods

That's The Chilterns. Recommended!

West Wratting

 January 2025

It's a few degrees above freezing and the ploughed fields are churned up with thick clay. Perhaps it wasn't the best time to go for a pleasant stroll from West Wratting.

On the other hand the mist is quite evocative, the horses well covered in blankets, not many folks around excepting the distant pop of pheasant shooters.

The original walk did rely on crossing fields and when we came to a long field where the right of way had been ploughed up we took the sensible course and re-routed the walk.

It ended up as a shorter than usual circular walk around West Wratting, parking and lunching at The Chestnut Tree. Beer good, good value pub grub, atmosphere and temperature a bit below par. When the landlord puts his hat and coat on at lunchtime, with opening hours still available, you know it's time to leave! (Or put the fire on!)