Auld Lammas Fair

Today was a bank holiday so David was off. Rather than me attacking my list of things to do, as I had planned, David & I headed for Ballycastle to check out the Auld Lammas Fair, which is nearly 400 years old--the oldest in Ireland. It was once a place of horse trading and livestock showing. That element of the show has dwindled to maybe 20 ponies tethered to a fence with a pile of hay and pony rides on offer. At least on the day we were there.

Mostly it was 400 stalls selling stuffed toys, clothes with tractor logos, candy, CDs, and “tractor porn,” videos with titles like “Silage Man” and “Big Plant Farming.” The fair is famous for Yellow Man, a hard chunk of honeycomb candy. The whole thing reminded me a bit of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, except the people weren’t as scary.

Next up, a hike at nearby Fairhead. I had only my phone with me so the photos are crap. This is an upland lake.

The lake above has a manmade Iron Age island, or crannóy, in the middle of the lake, which is called Lough na Cranagh.
And this a typical scene from the cliff walk near Fairhead--itself an attractive 600-foot-high headland cliff visible from Ballycastle.

We parked at the National Trust car park amongst a group of cottages, one of which is leased out and was being guarded by two goats.

I tried to enlarge the photo so you could see the doorstop goat better. After our hike, we sat in the car and had tea and apple tart. Mr. Brown Goat came up to the car and put his hooves on the door, hoping for some tiffin. Time for us to go. We drove down to the lovely Murlough Bay--David had never been, then drove home down the coast road through the lovely villages of Cushendun, Glenarm, Waterfoot, and so on.

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