https://nineglensadventuretours.co.uk/

Nine Glens Adventure Tours, 40 Leyland Meadow, Ballycastle (2026)

29/01/2024

After much deliberation and soul searching over Christmas this year we have decided to pause the 2024 season folks. We have been taking visitors, groups and friends to both Rathlin Island and the Antrim Glens since late 2015, so for nine years now we have tried to showcase some of the best of the North Coast.

We are a seasonal business,operating from March to the end of August and although it has always been passion before profit for us it has got unsustainable for us to operate in the current form.

Rising transportation costs,rising insurance costs, inclement weather (last year),loss of tenders and with a number of tours cancelled alongside personal commitments have led me into having to make a decision before we started to schedule this season.

I want to thank the team, Kirsti, Ksenia and Aoife for all they have did over the last few years and I do hope that at some point we can get back to doing what we all love.

For 2024, I will be focusing on group tours only so still feel free to get in touch.

📸 Team Nine Glen's

18/01/2024

Although the Tenbury Well’s Advertiser was reporting the sinking of the steam trawler The City of Bristol on the 18th of January, the ship actually had gone down on the 11th of January. (www.Irishwrecksonline). It probably took a week for the reporting to reach Tenbury broadsheets.

The City of Bristol was a steam trawler running from Fleetwood in England and on the night in question the ship was seeking shelter from a raging snowstorm between Larrybane and Sheep Island just off Ballintoy. The ship hit the reef there and started to sink nearly immediately. This reef can still be seen from the mainland at time today with a low tide and clear weather. The crew of the City of Bristol did manage to get to the lifeboats and so they started rowing and for the next seven and a half hours they rowed to Ballycastle. They landed exhausted in the town at 1.30am and were taken to the coastguard houses where they were looked after. The entire crew of eleven hands were saved.

The City of Bristol was built in 1903 and was built by the Goole Shipbuilding Co. The Goole Shipbuilding and Repairing Co. was founded by the Craggs family in 1901 and was based on the Dutch River at Goole in Yorkshire, England, this would mean that the City of Bristol was one of their earlier ships. The owner was the Kelsall Brothers Fish Merchants. The Kelsall Brothers were run by John Kelsall, a really wealthy man who left in today’s money nearly seven million in his will in 1919, the company was formed in 1897 and the new company started with 31 steam trawlers and four steam fishers from the Fleetwood Ice Company.Today the City of Bristol lies in about 20m of water between Sheep Island and Ballintoy.

I would imagine there was little sympathy in Ballintoy surrounding the sinking of the The City of Bristol. The Fleetwood Trawler's fishing in the area was a major contention amongst the local population and it was a matter of fact that a law had been passed previously to discourage it.

Thomas Bushley was the Station officer at Ballintoy Coastguard Station and he had meticiously kept notes on what was happening in the area. In 1907, three years before the sinking there was thirty seven boats, 80 men and two boys working the fisheries here. The trawlers however were coming close to shore and ruining the local fishermen's longlines. The locals were saying that there was a lack of fish now and In 1908 a bye law was passed locally that was to stop trawling in an imaginary line from Bengore Head to the Bull point on Rathlin. It didnt stop the trawlers however and one boat that was successfully prosecuted was the Diana which was another one of the Fleetwood trawlers.

The Ballintoy Coastguard would only last until February 1912, where a bigger and more advanced Coastguard Station was being planned for Ballycastle. It was obviously a sad decision for Ballintoy.

08/01/2024

THE NORTH STAR D**E

Along the Carrickmore/ Carraig Mhor road in Ballycastle sits what looks like an entirely man-made structure representing a pier. A stretch of black Olivine Dolerite rock that stretches out towards Rathlin and the Mull of Kintyre.

This rock feature due to volcanic ereuption can be dated to the Carboniferous age. There are many different types of rock in this area but this coastline would probably be most recognised for its coal seams that are in some places visible from the Culfeightrin shoreline.

Over the centuries these coal seams led to deeper pe*******on into the earth surrounding the area in the search for commercial quantities of coal. There was bore holes down to 110ft as far inland as Ballynagard Townland.

Different names were given to the rock bands in this area and some of them might be recognisable to some of us today. Names such as Mc Gildowney’s Marine Band, Carrickmore Black Band Ironstone and Bath Lodge Coal. Named after familiar topographical features and names from this area.

There is also a large faultline that stretches from Ballycastle to Murlough Bay known as the Great Gaw D**e. Throughout the ages it seems that all mining syndicates and potential entrepreneurs were aware of this large D**e.

While the Great Gaw D**e is not visible to the eye, the North Star D**e is one of the most recognisable rock features on the Culfeightrin Coastline, after An Bhinn Mhór/ Fairhead obviously.

O’Cahan (1923) gives us a better understanding of the dimensions of the North Star D**e,

“The North Star D**e has two nearly perpendicular sides and a nearly flat surface and is about 13ft in width, it extends for about 300ft into the ocean. About 21ft of it on the shore is scarcely visible and about 105ft of it has been destroyed by the ocean while the intervening 174ft is well defined. Its highest part is about seven ft, and at the point is about 5ft in height and has an inclination of 7inches from the end towards the East”.

The name of the North Star D**e and the North Star mine is clearly intwinned and is reportedly named because it points directly towards the North Star. Hugh Boyd who commercialised these mines more than most was also referred to in the Dublin Parliament as the Star of the North.

22/12/2023

To all our friends,followers and fellow adventurists. 👣🦀🦞🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️

A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from myself and the team at Nine Glens Adventure Tours.

We will see you all in 2024 on the beautiful Rathlin Island. ⛴️⛴️

13/11/2023

THE NORTH STAR MINE

Sitting adjacent to the Carrickmore Road is located the most obvious reminder of a long forgotten industry that the very foundations of Ballycastle was built on. It is of course the North Star Coal Mine.

Unless you know the terrain physically here you would not be aware of the multitude of mine entrances that would line the shoreline between Carraig Uisneach and Carraig Mhór. Many of these entrances have now been closed over or hidden away from everyday view in the interest of health and safety. But occassionally you can make out the spoil heaps that were close to the entrance of certain mines.

The most obvious spoil heap for me is at the Fallowee mine at the bottom of the Corrymeela road this sits quite close to the White Mine which again sits close to Maguire's Strand. See post

However it is the entrance to the North Star Mine that is unmistakably perched next to the road on the way to Carraig Mhór.

The Reverend William Hamilton would in 1786 publish his work known as "Letters concerning the northern coast of the county of Antrim" and in it he would mention that in the year 1770 when Miner's at the North Star Mine were cutting into a wall they broke into a chamber that showed an existing mine. The hole wasnt large and so two young lads were sent into the chamber with candles to explore. In later versions of the story the two lads are named as James Mc Keirnan and William Mc Neal. The Mc Keirnan name and Mc Neal (sic) would be associated with the mines in that area for centuries, so possibly giving some creedence to the story. The mine was extensive and old tools were found that upon touch would crumble to dust. The lads did get lost and thought that they were done for but through a system of knocking that was replicated by the miners they found their way back to the entrance. This particular story has been told time and time again from historians right through from Hamilton through to George Hill of Moyarget and indeed another historian Robert Mc Cahan open's his chapter on the Ballycastle Coalfields on this very story. In Robert's collection of papers that he published in 1923, one hundred years ago this year, he writes a series of pamphlets on local history.The Glens of Antrim Historical Society republished these pamplet's in the Mc Cahan's Local Histories some years back. (Mc Cahan's Local Histories 1988)

From my understanding their is little physical evidence of the subterrainian chambers in this story other than the record of two stone "hammers"and the story does seem to have changed time and time again (like all stories). Different theories were given by the historians to who founded the mines, some say that it was associated with the Dane's, others the phoenicians and some give it a more ancient history. Regardless of age this was all related to the North Star Mine. Hugh A Boyd, another fantastic Ballycastle historian from the Quay Road reportedly presented one of these stones to the Geology department at Queens at one point (Ulster Journal of Archeology, Third Series, Vol. 4 (1941), pp. 27-30)

With this story being retold it led many newspapers at different periods to lable the North Star Mine (or the adjacent one) the oldest coalmine in the world ( A big claim indeed).

Regardless of this wonderful story, the North Star mine has been worked from a very early period,I would be confident enough to say that this was one of Boyd's mines. Boyd was known in the Dublin Parliament as the "Star of the North" and with this being known as the North Star Mine and then the rocky outcrop opposite known as the North Star D**e. There would have to have been some link between the two surely.

Coincidently, the Ballycastle Unionist band and Orange Order was known as the Star of the North RBP 492. If we look back today from the road heading to Marconi Cottage and right above the North Star Mine you can see the old road that would lead from the mine headed towards Ballyvoy.

There is no concrete figures or certainly none that I can find as of yet to tell us when exactly the North Star started or indeed finished mining. There was new shafts being mined and new companies were still being formed through the 1910's and the 1920's. There was bore holes for exploration tested as far inland as the townlands of Losset and Ballynagard (Where I come from) in the years previous to this. This is a good mile inland as the crow flies from the North Star Mine. So people still saw potential here.According to Robert Mc Cahan's Pamplet's the early 1920's would see the bulk of the mining along the coastline start to wrap up. Periodically entrenpreneurs would come along after this and there would be of course some mining right up to the mid twentieth century and then the mining stopped completely

If we look now across this landscape there is very little structural evidence to tell us about this history that stretched over three centuries and possibly longer. Today the entrance to the North Star Mine would be one of the only physical surviving manifestations of this industry.

N.B. As a side note to our story above another story develop's. The historian who we started the story with,the Reverend William Hamilton,one of founders of the Royal Irish Acadamy was murdered in Co Donegal at the outbreak of the United Irishman Rebellion in 1797. He was a hated magistrate who would lead the military in brutal searches and raids. After his death the British would introduce Martial Law in Ireland.

09/11/2023

Dan Darragh was Culfeightrin born, born in the shadow of Fairhead in a small place known as Lisnacilly, whilst not a townland it is more of a place name. Its sits not to far above Ballyvoy. The writer and poet Daniel (Benmore) Clarke would say that Dan and his family were evicted from their tenant farm as he was a small boy.. A neighbour brought the young boy in and it was through this means that Daniel would recieve a strong education. Dan would go on to become a school teacher and hold teaching positiions in Glendun, Glenshesk and Ballycastle, when he actually joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood needs a little more research but from mid 1865 he was under suspicion by the local constabularly. Dan would ultimately go on the run and end up across the water. He was present in Manchester on the 18th September 1867 at the rescue attempt of what would become known as the Manchester Martyr's.
For his part in this rescue he was sentenced to death, his sentenced was then commuted to life imprisonment but due to the harsh conditions that Irish political prisoners were forced to endure Dan would die in Pentonville prison in June 1870. There was a political fight then between the British Home Secretary and the Irish representatives on the return of Dan's remains. Eventually the body was returned home to Ballycastle and even though the body was under an embargo and imposed conditions, Ballycastle turned out accordingly. For years Dan's grave was a site of pilgrimage and he would be remembered yearly at the Cushendun commemorations at the grave of Shane O'Neill. In 1909, one of Dan's fellow participants that day in 1867 would take a celebrated tour of Ireland where he would get the freedom of Dublin, Cork and Waterford. This man was Edward O'Meagher Condon, he too was sentenced to death but due to the American government intervening was banished to America. In a memorable speech from the dock he would give the rallying cry "God Save Ireland". Irish nationalist's would remember this speech today with the song
"God save Ireland cried the heroes"

O'Meagher Condon would visit Ballycastle on this Irish tour where he would visit the grave of his comrade Dan Darragh. In O'Meagher Condon own words on arrival one night in front of a large audience in Toome O'Meagher Condon would remark
"We are somewhat late in coming this night because they wished earnestly to visit the grave of a dead comrade,one of the most faithful, most nobliest hearts that ever beat, one of the gentliest and kindest, one of the best Ulsterman possibly who was ever born - Dan Darragh. He was a gallant and a faithful comrade who service to him (Captain Condon) at the time of the Manchester rescue were invaluable. His remains laid buried at Ballycastle, and he could not come within 1000 miles of his grave and not come and kneel and say a prayer for his soul."

An 1940's Ballycastle Gaelic Football team would be known as the Dan Darragh's and in the Noughties a Republican band would carry his name. Many of the Darragh family would move to County Waterford and this author in recent years has been in touch with the family. Dan Darragh's story is an untold story that was one time front and centre of Irish and British politics. On a more parochial level, some big names in Belfast such as the celebrated solicitor John Rea (I visited his grave last week - Holywood Priory Cemetery) and at the Ballycastle level magistrates such as John Mc Gildowney (Clare Park), Robert Gage (Rathlin Manor House) and Major General Hugh Boyd (Ballycastle Manor House) would all play roles in the story of Dan Darragh.

06/11/2023

MAGUIRE'S STRAND

In this week's blog we move further around the Culfeightrin Coastline towards Maguire's Strand. I should start the post by saying that the spelling of this particular place name has changed slightly in the 303 years from what would have been the origin of the name and it all comes back to the lease of land in that area.

There is evidence to suggest that mining had been happening in this area prior to the 18th Century, the Will of the Earl of Antrim in 1629 stated that "my said wife shall have all my salt worked and coal workes within the Tuogh of Carie, with all the rent and profits there off"(Hill, Mac Donnell's P437). It is however in the early 18thC that our local coal would put Ballycastle on the map. Most of the coal burned in Ireland at this point was English coal, the mine owners in Cumbria, namely the Lowther family more or less had a monopoly on coal here and with it the prices they charged. Through the colder months these prices could near double, Johnathon Swift (Gulliver's Travel's), Dean of Dublin at this time would write frequently about it. So the Irish Parliament decided to try and source their own home grown produce. Two brothers, Dublin born merchants and bankers known as Richard and William Mc Gwire rose to the challenge, the brothers had some success before with mining in Dublin and they would lease on the 10th August 1720 the ground between Bun Na Margaui and Fairhead and start the extraction process. Other partners in the lease would include John Hall, Richard Nutley,Richard Stewart and Richard Stone, Hannibal Hall and the most well known of the lot was Thomas Burgh (De Burgh) who would be the MP for Naas. Burgh was both a military man, he was present on the Williamite side at the Siege of Limerick and an architect. Many of the well known Dublin buildings we recognise today would be designed by him. Under the lease the Mc Gwires were to pay £3500 with £1500 up front immediately and the rest in two instalments after two months. and five months. The Earl was to receive the yearly rent of £5,15s. The term of the lease was thirty one years. By the end of 1721, they had successfully sent 1260 tonnes of coal to Dublin and Dublin produced a grant of £1000 pound with a promise that another £1000 was available if they could produce £5000 tonnes of coal the following year. Again the lease holders were successful. Between 1721 and 1727 the Dublin Parliament gave £6000 in grants to the Partners to continue mining in Ballycastle. To give some context £6,000 in 1750 is worth £1,640,558.88 today.

Ballycastle had a major problem however and it was its logistics, Ballycastle was not a "Port of Discharge" and therefore not many ships could partake in the coal trade. The partners did try to get around this and both they alongside Ballycastle traders,some Dublin Merchants and some ship owners would petition the Irish Privy Council to make Ballycastle a Port of Discharge. Almost as soon as the ink was dry, the "Honorable Irish Society" who had the Ports in Coleraine and Derry launched a campaign to oppose this proposal in Ballycastle (unthinkable, a Coleraine institution opposing progress across the Borough) and they were successful in blocking this for two years. In 1730, this went to the House of Common's once again and although with a sustained campaign by the Irish Society this time it passed. It is worth noting that the mine manager at the time was a young man known as Hugh Boyd. A man who would go on to take the lease and largely be responsible for the Ballycastle we recognise today. Was it through this period he recognised the need for a working harbour in Ballycastle?

Ultimately the partners never made great financial gain from the Ballycastle mines between 1720 and 1729, they received the grants, they invested their own money and had major outlays on transportation and other debts. It is estimated however that between 1721 and 1733 18,000 tonnes of coal had been mined and most had been sent to Dublin (Boyd) and while the Mc Gwire lease of 1720 was ultimately unsuccessful in financial terms it gave birth to what would be the beginning of the Ballycastle Industrial period. Hugh Boyd,the mines Manager had studied and learnt lessons over the last number of years and would begin to put his experience to work. Boyd today is ever present in Ballycastle very much like Thomas Burgh and the Dublin architecture, Boyd and the Ballycastle architecture is synominus with one another. Sadly other than this small stretch of our coastline known as Maguire's Strand, the Mc Gwire brothers, Richard and William have been written out of our local history.

23/10/2023

BALLYCASTLE SALTPAN’S

Whilst most of us have some knowledge of the coal mines to the East of Ballycastle how many of us know about the Salt pans that would be built close to them? I suppose the most obvious reference to this long forgotten industry would be the Pan’s Rock’s. The Pan’s making reference to the Broughanlea Pan which was uncovered as late as 2014 but in the interest of conservation was buried over again for its own protection.

But this industry was an industry that would span in its entirety three centuries here in Culfeightrin. In 1669 the Hearth Money Rolls state: ‘Neare unto this point are two salt pans where salt is artificially made by the boyling of salt water with pit coale which coal pits are very near to the pans aforesaid and yield great profit to the possessour….’.

The Hearth Tax was a tax based on legislation of 1622 to raise money for the government; 2 shillings was levied on each hearth or fireplace.Arranged by county and parish the rolls name only householders and townland and the number of hearths on which he was taxed.

Below are the names of those who were taxed from Broughanlea where this ’s story takes place…..
The Salt Panns (in Broughanlea) �Don Stewart, 2. John Sharpe, Thomas Sharpe.

Salt Panning in Ballycastle was heavily reliant on the coal that is located across the Shoreline from Broughanlea to Murlough Bay and the first mention of the Salt Pan’s were from the Will of Randal Arranach (From Arran) - Son of Sorley Boy and the first Earl of Antrim who would pass in 1629, Randal lies now in Bun Na Mairge crypt and would be responsible for the building of Ballycastle Castle which stood in the Diamond. The Petty Down’s Survey map dated to the 1650’s show the location of Salt Pan’s and in what town-land they were present. Although this map might not be 100% accurate it gives us a start point.

Coincidently Ballycastle Salt pan’s would see the murder of William Erwin and his wife here by Turlough Og O’Donnell and Phelim O’Boyle as part of the 1641 Irish Confederate Wars (1642 dispositions) and around this time the Ballycastle Castle(Ballycastle Diamond) was occupied by troops. There is a story that Randal’s wife, Ellis O’Neill had to leave the castle and seek shelter in Bun Na Mairge. Ellis, of course was the daughter of the Great Aodh Mór Ó Néill /Hugh O’ Neill whose mortal remains now lie in San Pietro in Montorio in Rome.

In 1720, two brothers from Dublin,the McGuire brothers would start to lease land here to mine for coal in the hope of gaining a reward from the Irish government (More about the brother’s next week) but included in the lease was the Salt pan’s in upper and lower Ballyreagh, it was thought that new pans were set up in 1720 and 1725, and in 1790 there was pans mentioned at the West mine in Tornaroan and at Broughanlea,the Broughanlea saltpan was most likely where the Pan’s Rock’s received its naming from. The Pan here was constructed of one inch thick iron plates and it was measured at twenty ft by sixteen feet. It was estimated to hold about 2,500 gallons of water, and it was costly in terms of coal. Six tonnes of coal was required to make one ton of salt. Rock salt however was beginning to be imported into Ballycastle by 1738, which was in the Boyd era and after the Boyd industries had started to fail one local merchant would import 3,230 bushels of British White salt. With the import of such large amounts of salt we can say with some certainty that this was the beginning of the end for local salt production, however in 1803 Broughanlea was still under lease and it would probably be the 1830’s when Salt Production across the Ballycastle shoreline ceased completely.

The Ballycastle Salt Pans were in production through the 17th century and would chiefly consist of a hand-cut reservoir for storing the salt water and then the pans that were heated with the coal to evaporate the water and leave the salt. There was other associated buildings with the structures and it was thought that the workers houses were located up in the townland of Tornaroan. There was an archeological dig that took place in 2014 and a wonderful blog that was written documenting the finds in these places. The finds included stone built structures thought to have been thatched for roofing, the buildings were not to a great standard of construction and of course great quantities of coal was found. Also included in the finds were clay pipes, part of a musket and animal bones that was most likely food stuff. Iron slag was found at the sites also. The salt that was produced would have been used in the preservation of food stuff and for other purposes.

I dedicate this week’s to the late Danny Mc Gill who would have been highly knowledgeable on the local industries here in Ballycastle. I unfortunately never got to meet Danny but I have been told we would have conversed for hours.

19/10/2023

Carraig Uisneach, the Pan’s Rock’s and Bath Lodge. They are all mentioned in this letter all but the Devil’s Churn! Does this compliment my theory that the place gained its nickname post 1907 and the drowning of the Priest?

Either way the very basis of this letter was about the tragic death of Father James Mc Cann, the Red haired priest.

Coincidently, the founder of the Irish news, Bishop Patrick Mc Alister and Father James Mc Cann lie only yard apart in St Patrick’s and St Bridget’s cemetery in Ballycastle. In October 1907, the papers were filled with the stories of Mc Cann drowning at Carraig Uisneach and in recent days some of the descendant’s of James Mc Cann have reached out to me through Cara McShane. I will follow that story when I get time.

“Sir- It may not be out of place to state that the very spot where the late lamented Reverend Father Mc Cann lost his life is also associated with another great tragic occurrence in Irish history, as nigh twenty centuries ago from the ledge of rock from which bathers jump off for a “header” Naise and his two brothers, the sons of Usna and Fidrie stepped into their coracle’s, or boats leaving Eireann for Cantire. Of whatever construction the boats were, it would be hard to tell now. It was in the immediate locality the son’s of Uisneach built their boats and in the ancient annals said to number one hundred and this rock for centuries was called “Carrick Usna”. It is quite easy to translate that into English, almost anybody could do it. Later - something like two hundred years ago,salt pans were used here for manufacturing salt. The remains of one are still to be seen where a wall fell some years ago, now showing the old iron pan full of rivets within about eighty yards to the shore to the east of it. Again later a cottage was built directly opposite, about 100 yards from it and called bath lodge. So sometimes this bathing place is called the Pan’s Rocks, and sometimes Bath Lodge but its old right name is Carraig Uisneach

The sons of Uisneach were wiled back by the deceit and treachery of Briern the Red,the son of Fergus Mac Roy and King Connors crime was looked upon by Culchullain and the rest of the red branch knights as a most detestable one and that they had nothing to do with it. It was at Torr point they landed on their way back which was the first stopping point with the chieftains of the castle, the next being Barach’s Castle now construed into “cask in barrow’ about 500 yards to the East of this rock. And from this by stages they went onto Emania where the tragedy took place. This rock will be linked in future for all time with the good priest who used his time and elequence so well in his divine masters cause, sparing neither time nor money in one cause which he had at heart, the education of the Catholic children. “

Yours faithfully Antiquarian

I dont know who the “Antiquarian” was but he obviously had a deep love and understanding of this place. He knew the Broughanlea townland like the back of his hand and knew it’s history.

Next week on Sidney J Lyle returns from war

📸 From Bathlodge - Courtesy of James McMichael

09/10/2023

The Devil’s Churn / Corn an Diabhail

Far Southward towered the sentinal proud
Knocklayde old time worn fame
Whose slopes yet guard the legend’s old
Of chiefs of honoured name

There eastwards rose that headland bold
Long linked with Uisneach’s sons
And Carricks rock rough swept with spray
Where tossed the enchanted swans

And the Sagart passed o’er the golden sands
Where the riplets broke in foam
And seagulls rode top the crested waves
And rode on there watery home

There amid those scenes sublime and grand
The good priest wound his way
To the sandstone rocks at old Bathlodge
Where Moyle’s wild waters play!

A few words written by Benmore Clarke on the tragic death of James Mc Cann- The Red Haired Priest. A name that will be forever more associated with the Devil’s Churn. James was but one tragedy associated with the waters of the Devil’s Churn but the Devil’s Churn would see quite a lot of tragedy in fact I have records of at least eleven deaths in the water surrounding Carraig Uisneach and the aptly named Devil Churn.

In blog post 011 I mentioned the Black Nun, Julia Mc Quillan of Bun Na Mairge, I never however mentioned her prophecies. One of the most famous of those propecies was that a red haired priest would lose their life at the Devil’s Churn. In 1907, Tyrone man Father James Mc Cann would lose his life here whilst swimming with Daniel Lamont (Ann Street), Father J H Eardly (Cushendall Road) and Noel Cox (Quay Road), son of Rector Thomas Cox. He was one of many deaths here young Martha Mc Curdy (Poor Row) would lose her life in the pool in 1902, William Mc Bride would lose his life here in 1909. In 1926, Reverend Penrose, a Londoner but who was married to the sister of Ronald Mc Neill of Glenmona House in Cushendun. Mc Neill was known as Lord Cushendun or more locally as Lord Crushemdown, but Penrose would enter the water not far from Carraig Uisneach to attempt to rescue three woman from being sucked out, two of these woman were employed by the Catholic run Cross and Passion College. The woman were saved but Reverend Penrose would lose his life in the process. Many years later Janet Farrell, a housemaid to Bathlodge and from Dundalk in County Louth would drown here in 1941. Although I have no written source for this but it would be quite imaginable to suggest that with all this death and much of it around religious figures the name “Devil’s Churn” could be easily applied to this area and it is why I personally think it has acquired this sobriquet. James Sawden, Ralph Baron Henry Bott and a few more unnamed souls were more people that found their end here with the sinking of the Minerva either here or somewhere close by a century before in 1829.

The Devil’s Churn itself is a natural sea cave with a blow hole that we can see spout its water with the incoming tide. This geological malformation sits to the Eastern end of Carey beach and at some point it has been repurposed as a natural “bucket pot” which was a rock-cut seawater reservoir for salt-making hence the naming of the adjacent Pan’s Rock’s. The entrance to the cave and steps down to the feature,a carved opening for a sluice gate alongside carved graffiti thought to be dated to the 18th century is still visible to this day. One other suggestion here was that the Devil’s Churn was used as a very early day spa facility. Bath lodge (upcoming post) was at one point used as a fever hospital, the Victorian’s had a great belief in sea bathing, Sea Bathing has long been praised as “the cure” for absolutely everything from broken bones to deadly diseases and it was thought that being so close to the Bath Lodge Fever house that the Devil’s churn might have been used in tandem with the recovery process. We see the holistic therapy of sea bathing/ cold water immersion making a large comeback in recent years.

This has been quite a sad post, so let’s finish it on a high. Or should I say sugar high 🤣

The Naturally North Coast and Glens Artisan Market social enterprise have in recent years started making their own caramel sauces named the Devil’s Churn. All sauces are made with locally sourced produce and are available in a couple of different flavours. It was only a week ago the Devil’s Churn Butterscotch was awarded Gold and the Devil’s Churn Irish Cream was awarded Silver at the Blas Na HEireann Irish Food Awards.

More information is available on their website.

https://www.devilschurn.co.uk/

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