Hello everyone, i'm John, i'm from County Antrim and it's great to have found the website. My love from the outdoors has been a recent thing (just over a year). I went camping with friends near Binevenagh mountain after enjoying some amazing views after my first short hike. From then on i've been completely hooked on everything outdoors.
I progressed to hiking in various areas of the North Coast and as my fitness levels increased I started to plan out longer routes which prompted me to invest in some local os maps. This then introduced me to an unknown wealth of local areas of outstanding natural beauty, early christian monuments and buildings, pre-christian tombs etc. I was amazed that so many interesting and beautiful places were reasonably close to me such as Dooey's cairn just outside Dunloy, Craigs Dolmen just outside Ballymoney, Bonamargy Friary, Murlough Bay and Lough na Cranagh near Ballycastle to name but a few.
Now I regularly seek out new sites, take in the scenery, crank up the stove and kick back with a cuppa and a slice of cake pondering what life would've been like in the times when these monuments, tombs and buildings were being constructed and wondering what everyday life might've been like for hunter-gatherers, fishermen and early settlers on the North Coast.
I rarely camp out due to paranoia regarding the legal and other implications of being caught by angry landowners, (I wouldn't recommend camping near Murlough Bay!!!). I'm also reluctant to camp in forests after learning of recent proposals for a strict Draconian law prohibitting people being in forests after dark. I'm not entirely sure what the legal implications of being caught are at present but the possible threat of a fine, legal action and the threat of being moved on in the middle of the night is enough to discourage me most of the time. It's saddening as i'd like to be able to throw up a tarp shelter and end a days hiking / site seeing with a relaxing camp out with a small fire and an Irish coffee without the fear that smoke or light from the fire would alert someone to my presence.
I find it sickening that teams of workers are permitted to commence fracking around the scenic coastline of Ballintoy, a motorway is permitted to be built through the Boyne Valley, Shell oil company is permitted to drill for oil in Rossport etc etc and i'm not able to have a small fire and relax in the woods or areas of National Trust property??? I understand that it's inevitable that groups of disrespectful people would abuse the right should it exist and invariably leave a mess and cause damage to the environment (i've come across countless former camps littered with food wrappers, beer bottles, cans and disposable bareques). There is surely a way of combatting this though, is there not!? These areas should be accessible to those like myself who respect them and leave them as they found them!
Through my excursions thinking about early inhabitants of these areas i've learned that not just life in those times would've been very different to the lifestyle in contemporary society but NI itself would've been very different in terms of wildlife and it's general appearance. I can't help but think that somewhere, at some time, something went wrong and society lost its way. We need to stop destroying our beautiful country and educate people in how to respect the environment and encourage people to stand up in protection of further damage otherwise we will lose these beautiful areas to golf courses, hotels, quarries and mines.
If anyone could recommend any good tried and tested camping spots in the North Coast i'd be grateful. I don't like using actual campsites as for me that takes away from the whole natural experience of the outdoors, I use the outdoors as a relaxing escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life and like to hear nothing but wildlife, the creaking of trees, the wind, water and the crackling of a fire, not the sound of civilisation, fellow campers chittering, children crying and the drone of the engine of a camper van. Can anyone recommend anywhere I can peacefully enjoy this with a nice view to wake up to and no threat of confrontation? I'd also be interested to know if there is any easy way I could source privately-owned, potential camping spots in scenic areas or privately owned woodland that I could seek prior persmission for use?
Follow NI-Wild
Author
Topic: Hello from County Antrim! (Read 7593 times)