Spooky graves and ruined churches

June patiently navigated as we visited sites of ancestral significance around County Londonderry and County Antrim (the top NE corner of Northern Ireland). We drove along the coast through Binevenaugh Area of Oustanding Natural Beauty, but didn't do much walking as it was drizzling, windy and cold.  Dunluce Castle ruins date from around 1500.
We skipped the Giants Causeway as we were due to meet our Ireland Reaching Out volunteer, Elwynn, at midday for lunch at the Fullerton Arms in Ballintoy.  I assumed Elwynn was a woman but he turned out to be a retired civil servant with a deep knowledge of Irish history. 

Elwynn took us to the church and graveyard at Ballintoy where there are three Fullerton headstones that we couldn't find.  He asked some locals about the ruins of Ballintoy Castle, once owned by Fullertons, but very little remains.  We went a little further to look at the rope bridge to Carrick-a-Rede and decided it was too cold and wet to attempt it.
We presented Elwynn with a packet of Tim Tams and went our separate ways.  Our next stop was Ballymoney where 4xgreat  grandfather Archibald Fullerton was a Presbyterian Minister, but the two churches we tried were both locked. Presbyterian churches are much plainer than Church of Ireland or Roman Catholic churches.

Archibald's son James was born at Aghadowey, so we drove through there to Garvagh. Ten minutes from Garvagh we walked down a muddy lane at Desertoghill to find the grave of Archibald, his wife Elizabeth and their son John in an abandoned graveyard with the very picturesque and atmospheric ruins of a church.
That was the highlight of the day for me.  A local neighbour told us it was a very historic site, founded by St Columb around 600 AD, and there were ancient standing stones on a nearby hill dating back to the Bronze Age.

The Garvagh Museum was closed so we celebrated with afternoon tea in a local Cafe.  Our last stop was Ballynacross where a different 3xgreat grandfather,  Henry Clarke, was born.  We wanted to visit the ruins of Old St Lurachs Church thete but it was not accessible, so we headed back to Derry and managed to navigate all the roundabouts in peak hour with no swearing at all.


Comments

  1. Pete19 April 2024 at 11:40

    Pity you didn't get to see The Giants Causeway. Many interesting stories about how it came to be there

    ReplyDelete

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