Our final day - Magilligan Point

On our final day, which was expected to be another 25 degree C scorcher, we once again headed for the Northern Irish coast. Yes it was cooler, but there are limits; 17 degrees C with a cool wind wasn't called for! The sun did eventually break through the fog, but the cliffs of Binevenagh never revealed themselves! Magilligan point was cool, in both senses of the word! From my point of view it was really good to see such a wide variety of shells on the tide line and accumulating at the back of the beach. We didn't explore the dunes on the point as we didn't have time and the MOD's red flags were flying. The geomorphology of this area is fascinating too as the low lying area that goes from the spit to the base of Binevenagh (the old sea cliff) is a raised beach plain with a series (150+) ridges, with peat deposits between them. I visited the cliffs earlier in the year, looking for the rare Arctic-Alpine plant species they are home too (click here). 

Definitely cool...

Black Guillemots under the pier.

The Ferry coming back from Greencastle, Co Donegal.

The tideline...

Compass Jellyfish.

Finally Donegal came into view...

Plenty of Sandwich Terns in the channel.

And at the back of the beach....a spectacular soil profile, representing a dune slack from basal sand, through peat, marl, fossil soil and capped by further sand. Click here for more information.

Scratting....

After Tom's graduation ceremony, so he's officially Dr Tom....we had a scrat round on the beach below Portstewart old golf course....

Plenty of shell pieces and shells around the base of the boulders.

A selection of shells. It was nice to find a Key-hole Limpet too - not shown. . 

Some nice reflections.

A dropping tide...

A variety of seaweeds.

Daisy Anemone, Cereus pedunculatus. Not a great photo as the water was moving!

Beadlet Anemones - and below.

A browner Beadlet Anemone.

Galboly: The Hidden Village

A warm walk up to the hidden village at Galboly, in the Glens of Antrim. Abandoned in the 1950s it was home to 60 people who were co-operative farmers. It may be more familiar to some as Runestone in the Vale of Arryn, from the Game of Thrones. It was nice to see the thatch and the branch rafters, but sadly it won't last much longer...It would have been lovely to walk up behind the village onto the plateau, but it was way too hot!

Ash rafters.

A large fireplace.

A large boulder forms part of a wall.

The coastal fog was still clearing.

What a splendid boy!

Johann the Goat and Pudding Stone

Our next visit was to Cushendun, for a walk along the coast, not very far, to the conglomerate caves, but first time to see the statue of Johann. We were really stuck by it last time we visited - Johann was the last animal to be culled in the area during the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak. Apparently he used to graze down by the harbour and wander around the village and was popular with both tourists and locals. 

Fortunately, given the heat inland, the coast was slightly foggy and much cooler! 

The village itself was designed by Clough Williams-Ellis for the Baron of Cushendun. After the baron's wife's death he designed a row of Cornish-looking cottages in her memory as she was born in Penzance.

Cushendun caves and an arch...

The cliffs are made up of deposits laid down by flash floods in the Devonian. They include a wide range of sizes of clasts/pebbles. This is known as a Pudding Stone, where rounded rocks are cemented together by finer material.

.

The site also, as did so many places in Northern Ireland, featured in Game of Thrones. 

Very 'designy'

Eerie!

Snakes and Adder's Tongues

Next, onto Streedagh Beach, but not for the beach...Streedagh is an important fossil site, with many 
coral species, brachiopods, crinoids and foraminifera. The most spectacular were the long solitary corals, Siphonophyllia samsonensis. Not unsurprisingly, they were likened to snakes - possibly the ones that St Patrick banished.....

Benbulben in the background.

Crossing some nice machair to get to the site.

Solitary corals.....

Colonial coral - probably Siphondendron sp.

An upturned coral head.

More spectacular views.

And on the way back ....Adder's Tongue fern.