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Local History of the worst possible kind! The story of Carnage Hill.

This post is shamelessly copied from a local history book, now out of print, that is also available in pdf format on line: http://www.bayburn.com/29128%20Helen's%20Bay%20&%20Crawfordsburn%20History.pdf. It is one section only of a much larger and more broadly based book.  All credit is then due to the book's author, and to the team at bayburn.com.

Those who have travelled the main road between Bangor and Belfast will know the corner known as ‘the Devil’s Elbow’, which is located just before the junction leading to Seahill/ Rockport.On the left side of the road when travelling from Bangor there is a small road leading up into the Holywood hills.It is now called Carney Hill, but according to this article that name derives from Carnage Hill.To see where it got this name read on.

Many thanks are due to Sam, my friend and avid local history buff.It was he who originally showed me a paper copy of this book.Unfortunately it is not a proud episode in our history.





The Ballydavey Massa…
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Imagine 1911 - Ireland was still wholly part of the British Empire, and before Titanic had left Belfast!

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I bought this magazine years ago, simply out of interest.  The way we were over a century ago makes interesting reading, not least when you look at the advertisements. It was a couple of quid well spent.  I thought it was about time I shared it with the world.  There will be photos of peoples ancestors in it that may well never have been seen.  The old adverts show that things like having a clutch on your motorcycle was a new and wonderful invention (page 5 and others)!  The travel stories are real gems too, like the twelve Ben's story on page 35. 


Just to show how small a place the world has become, have a look on page 21, where the Royal Hotel, Valencia, (This is a typo.  It should be Valentia), advertises that it is 'only' sixteen and a half hours from London.  Incidentally, according to Google, the hotel is still there, and the pictures of it even still look like the ones in this magazine (https://www.royalvalentia.ie/).


No pages are missing from these scans, but a se…
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A Dirty Little Secret?

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This thought ties back in part to an article I wrote earlier:https://oldandireland.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-pessimistic-speculation-on-future.html



At present, we are being sold the myth that if we all swap to some sort of electric car, then personal transportation will continue into the future, just in a quieter and less polluting form.Don’t believe this!Cars have at least one dirty little secret that the environmentalists have not yet talked about, and it alone may signal the end of mass car ownership.
There are currently 38.7 million cars in the UK and 2.68 million in the Republic of Ireland.According to google, UK motorists cover an average 7900 miles annually while their Irish counterparts drive further with a 10,500 mile annual average.Now consider the tyres on all of these vehicles.If tyres are replaced at around the 30, 000 mile mark my quick calculation estimates that we are using about 11.1 million car tyres in the UK and Ireland every year.OK, these old tyres are recycled, but w…
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Foot-Loose in the British Isles, by Harry A. Franck - The Irish chapters.

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The following scans are from a book called ‘Foot-Loose in the British Isles’ by a traveler called Harry A. Franck. First published in 1932, it shows Ireland at a time when the two new states were still finding their identity, while also dealing with the financial consequences of the great depression.In his career, he travelled to a good proportion of the world’s continents.His exploits are well worth reading, even though they display many of the more repressive attitudes prevalent at the time (as you will see on the first page of these scans).Get past this, and you will find an intelligently written, entertaining snapshot of our little island, in a time now long gone.Many of his books are available free on Project Guttenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ ).Look up Harry’s entry on Wikipedia; he led an interesting life.
I will post these scans by chapter over the next few weeks as I get time to process them.Since I will use Harry’s chapter names, this should also make it easier to find th…
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The next time you have to buy Magenta toner/ ink for your printer, think of this.....

The Battle of Magenta took place near the town of Magenta in the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a crown land of the Austrian Empire on 4 June 1859.The dye was discovered in 1859 and named in honour of the event. 
Now here is the Irish bit; the leader of French forces was of Irish descent.  According to Wikipedia, his family his family originally had land in Munster, lost it because of Cromwell, and then eventually emigrated to France after 1690. Patrice de MacMahon (Paddy to his mates) joined the French army in 1820 and distinguished himself fighting for Napoleon.After winning the Battle of Magenta, he was made Duke of Magenta, before eventually becoming President of France!
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Island life.

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OK, Islay has nothing to do with Ireland, but it is only twenty five miles off our coast, and the scenery and culture would be familiar to anyone who lives here in Ireland.  This story was originally published way back in 2008 in Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly, a great magazine in its time.  I thought this was sufficiently far removed from the current Covid crisis to give us all a small reminder of better times.

Enjoy.

__________ My home in Northern Ireland provides scope for many good scenic runs on a bike.  One familiar and rightly popular local run follows the coast north through County Antrim from the narrow confines of the Irish Sea to the open Atlantic.  The two waters meet off Ballycastle, a harbour sheltered by the rugged cliffs of Rathlin Island 3 miles offshore.  Look west from here on a good day, and the coast winds off toward Donegal and the open ocean, look north and off Scotland’s coast, the horizon is broken by Islay, the first of the Hebridies islands, and by the hills o…
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The Great Storm - 22nd December 1894

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I’ve seen a few good storms in my time, although probably nothing that would match the one below.The description of a great storm in 1894 (in bold and italics), again comes from the local history booklet by C.F. Milliken.
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In Bangor Town Hall you will see some photographs of old sailing ships which were blown ashore on 22nd December 1894.Out of six sailing ships anchored in Belfast Lough only one escaped.This was the Norwegian full rigged ship “The Malone”, which early on Friday morning slipped her anchor and went to sea.
The three-masted schooner “Doctor”, went aground on Ballymacormick Point and was in matchwood in about five minutes.The greater part of her crew were drowned.
The barque “Lancaster” ran aground at Grey Point, but the crew were all rescued by the rocket apparatus.
The Italian barque, “Espina” was demasted and afterwards brought into Belfast.
The “Noel”, probably on poor holding ground, dragged her anchor and was driven ashore on the rocks to the east of the Roy…
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