Tuesday – A Train Trip to Derry

The morning was gorgeous with bright sunshine so we took an early walk on Portstewart Strand (Beach).

Then we decided to take the train from Coleraine to Derry for a walkabout. We could easily drive there in less than an hour, but the train ride is supposed to be a beautiful ride, so why not give it a try? The ride definitely lived up to its reputation. The modern train made two stops and arrived in Derry on time in just 45 minutes.

We have been to Derry before, so this was familiar territory. The city walls are a good walk as is a stroll through Free Derry, the site of Bloody Sunday (the Bogside Massacre) in 1972 which remains among the most significant events in the Troubles of Northern Ireland. We skipped the very interesting Free Derry museum as we did it on our last visit here.

After the train ride back to Coleraine, we returned to Kinvara Cottage in Portstewart for a short rest. Then we walked down to Portstewart Strand for dinner at Harry’s Beach Shack. (Hmmmm, shouldn’t it named Harry’s Strand shack?)  It’s a new restaurant run by a restaurant family from Donegal in the Republic. It’s so new that they don’t take bookings yet, don’t accept credit cards, and do not yet have a license for alcohol. So we brought our own bottle of wine. Dinner was wonderful. Starters: mackerel cakes with a beetroot sauce for me; chicken liver parfait (pate) for Elaine. Then she had hake for her main while I had Megrin, a sole like fish. And we had desserts: chocolate pot with caramel salt ice cream for me; sticky toffee pudding with honeycomb ice cream for Elaine.

As we walked up from the beach back toward Kinvara Cottage, we got a good glimpse of the famous Portstewart sunset. “Red Sails in the Sunset” was written by prolific songwriter Jimmy Kennedy. The song was inspired by the “red sails” of Kitty of Coleraine, a yacht Kennedy often saw off the northern coast of Ireland near his adopted town Portstewart.