| The
road at the top of the photograph leads
to Bushmills - at the junction you can still see the old Bayview Hotel and
Watchtower Cottage before it was demolished and replaced by a larger
apartment block. C.S. Lewis is reputed to have stayed there when he visited the north coast - he spent many childhood holidays in and around
here which became one of his favourite locations along with the Mourne
Mountains. The photo also shows the inner harbour corner before conversion into a larger apartment block. On the left
side are the distinct concentric rings of Lissanduff which dates to the Bronze
Age - the site is still to be excavated. Theories suggest the
concentric circles were used for water retention and rituals - the
elevated site was certainly used as a fort during periods of its history.
The small harbour is where the 12,000
artifacts from the Girona came ashore, the Belgian marine archeologist Robert Stenuit
found and excavated this Spanish Armada shipwreck in 1967/68
after it had lain untouched for 380 years. Recovered items
included gold and silver coins, jewellery, silver plate, a
bronze cannon, and eleven of twelve 'lapis lazuli' cameos -
Frank Madden, the licensee of the site, found the last cameo
more recently - making the complete set |
|
