Day 11 - Ulster Folk Museum

Friday 25, September 2019

Helen's Tower

We breakfast on the samples of Clandeboye yoghurt provided complimentary for our stay. It's quite nice, but a read down the list of ingredients makes me pull a face. Its disappointingly long. We've been ruined by having a local dairy at home that produces simply superb yoghurt with nothing but milk and culture and a bit of sugar to sweeten if you want the sweet variety. Oh well, it's above average anyway and that will tide us over.

We head up to the roof to check the view this morning. Just as well we came up and spent a little while last night because the visibility's not as good now. It's still pretty special though.

On the roof of Helen's Tower. 

I shower. What an ordeal that is, but we can't say we weren't warned. At any rate, I get clean enough to show myself to the world. That's enough. Not keen to engage in that activity here again.

We're thinking we might have to ask about shower devices when booking our stays in future. We came across a couple of places with this sort of thing. Yeah, not fun. 

Today we're off to Ulster Folk Museum. When we say that to people they ask whether we plan to visit the Transport Museum, that's also very good. Yeah, OK. But my main objective is the Folk Museum.
Driving out from the tower, the woodland is misty. We take the shortcut under the hanging tree. I'm still tickled that we got to see it. What a great tree. We passed under it a few times during the course of our stay, but then we decided no more. Don't want to compact the roots more than necessary, the tree wouldn't like that.

A bit of googling has revealed that the local Vodafone store opens quite early, and we should have time to sort me out a UK Sim before the folk museum opens. It turns out that we are massively incompetent not just at navigating but even at finding the entrance to well marked shopping centres. It's not all bad though because having parked up in the section where there's large stores with their own direct entrance we find a Pet Store!  Ooh, look! I exclaim. I'm drawn there like a magnet. Northern Hemisphere pet stores are fascinating places. Naturally I make straight for the cages of little mammals. I'm amazed at all the different species you can get. I didn't realise there were so many different sorts, hamsters and gerbils of different sorts. Cut little furry bundles are curled up in sleeping hutches. One little sweetie shuffles around a bit and quickly darts back to cover. Our range of pets at home is boring by comparison, basically limited to mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits.
I guess I should explain why we need yet another SIM - I just figured as I was out of data on the SIM I bought at Dublin Airport, it was actually cheaper to just get a new deal and handy to have a UK SIM that won't freak out when we try to us it in Liverpool. I have to observe though, the constant roaming messages you get as you move across the border between the Republic and the UK are really annoying. It must drive residents crazy. In fact, we never did quite master phoning or messaging between Hubby's Irish SIM and my UK SIM. Email worked, but that's it. Though I have to admit we didn't devote too much time to figuring it out. Vodafone never seems to leave you alone, constantly badgering you about this or that. I get to the point where I'm actually hoping they ask me again about my experience, because man do I have something to say. My favourite message went along the lines of "We know you don't like random deals... so here, lets talk to you about a random deal we've dreamt up based on your usage". Vodafone? Never again if I can help it.
Well, where do we start for the Ulster Folk Museum. We had an absolutely fabulous day. We arrived maybe 20 minutes or half an hour after they opened and left at closing time but we went nowhere even close to seeing everything. We were chatty, and not inefficient in how we got around, but even if we barely spoke to a soul, I think you'd find it a challenge to see everything in one day - and your experience wouldn't be as good as just engaging with the people you meet and seeing what you see.
Again put on the spot as to whether we'll visit the Transport Museum and noting the discount for seeing the two together, we buy the double ticket and we'll see how we go.
We began at what appeared to be the obvious place with a visit to the corner sweet shop near the entrance. We wouldn't want our blood sugar to drop too far!

The peanut brittle was great, so were the lollies shaped like peanuts and individually wrapped. 

Then we made our way around the little homes that run along the two sides of the same block. Each of these reflects a different level of comfort, from the very basic somewhere to sleep and a fire where single men would have shared the dwelling,  to the dressmaker at the upper end of the scale with a bit more room and a few more expensive furnishings, but still tiny by modern standards. Visiting these displays on our own turns out to be a bit of a waste, because we come back here as part of the guided tour later, though it is nice to spend a bit of time in quiet contemplation on your own too.
Around the corner from the white terraces there's a Carpenter's workshop. Hard at work is a master woodworker. We watch him at work as we talk, he explaining what he's making and us asking questions. We get along very well and talk to him for quite a long time. Watching his tools slicing through the wood like butter, it's an obvious observation that having very sharp tools is clearly important. He studied at the place where they restore Chippendale, and was engaged to help restore the Crown Liquor Saloon after it was damaged by bombing at the Europa Hotel in Belfast. We have here a highly skilled artisan. We chat about commissions received and the items in the window, Grinling Gibbons; rates of production and the famous catalogues of achievement of the master woodworkers of the past. Eventually we tear ourselves away to resume our exploration, promising to come back before we leave.
In the absence of any other strategy we figure we may as well work our way around in numerical order based on the map. There's 54 different buildings over a huge area, so it's clear there's little chance of covering them all in a day. We also have a list of what's on today that we were handed by a man who was hurrying down to the ticket office with the little stack to be handed out to visitors, so we need to weave that into the mix as well.

We work our way up the row with interest, then pass the Church of Ireland, we can come back to that, it's not a priority. We are disappointed to find that regular maintenance work means that the photographer is closed. It's getting on for lunch time, and the small volume of visitors that's accumulated since we arrived are all keen on taking a ride on the replica vintage bus, which is being driven by a young woman in period dress including an extravagant Edwardian style hat. She looks brilliant. Lets do that next, and get it out of the way before lunch. The bus leaves from a marked location in the diamond. I find myself contemplating what a pleasant physical space traditional villages generally are. The bus takes you around the wider area of the museum but it's not a hop on hop off situation, just a fun loop that takes about 10-15 mins.

Our bus load climbs down and with many smiles and laughs we thank our driver as we go on our way, making way for the next crowd keen to ride. We're headed across the diamond to the Ballycultra Tea Room, but not before I'm distracted by the Picture House, oooh that looks good. Hubby hurries me along, pointing out that we can come back once we've eaten.

There's a limited range of items currently available from the menu in the Ballycultra Tearoom. Hubby opts for a serve of the Ulster Beef Stew and I play it safe with a Ballycultra Homemade Sausage Roll with sauce. The Ulster Beef Stew was interesting, like nothing we've ever seen before. The sausage roll was OK. Hubby's rounded things off by choosing a slice of one of the home made cakes to go with his coffee.  Well, we weren't hungry anyway.

Ulster Beef Stew

By now my highest priority is to get around the artisans who are working today. Just to be thorough we take a quick look at the Post Office and the RIC Barracks and peer in the window of the print shop. The Basket Makers Workshop is a quite different in it's design than the other buildings around it. Bundles of weaving materials stand in the little courtyard. Inside I find a man sitting on a low seat intent on weaving a small rounded item. Arrayed around the room are all manner of woven items, baskets, a fishtrap, an absolutely stunning pig. There's a bull head dress and a goat's head similar to the hare one we saw at the Navan Centre. We have a bit of a chat about the materials for weaving and the process.

 An observation about the fish trap being very similar in design to those made by Aboriginal people in Australia draws out a fellow who'd been quiet out of sight. We get chatting about his travels in Australia and are having a good ol' time until he announced that well, it's time for him to take the guided tour around the museum. That was definitely on our agenda so we continue the chatting as we walk with him to the starting point back near the sweet shop, where there's a small group of costumed characters having a bit of a natter. We all join in and wait for any others who might want to join us, but no, it turns out we have Victor to ourselves. Before we can depart, Victor begs the loan of an apron from one of the ladies. All promises of speedy returns and hints of retribution if not, he takes us back to the start of our day and explains each dwelling, some of it duplicating what we'd read but also with some additional anecdotes and discussion about each property. The worker's cottages were still being lived in on their original site recently enough that the museum still gets people coming in who remember those who lived in them. Victor explains the context of the lives of the people and how the homes were used, including the half door arrangement. At one point he shoos us outside and we wait expectantly for a surprise that makes us laugh. Victor poses for photos like a pro, grinning ear to ear.

The Old Rectory, Ulster Folk Museum

Time is getting on and our next stop of note is the Old Rectory, where our driver of this morning is residing. We learn of the uses of a really impressive chimney space and hearth, tales of ghost stories and pranks and consequences. In a suitably spooked frame of mind we head up stairs for a look. The presentation is meticulous, and the residents here were clearly living pretty comfortably but the human interaction absolutely makes the experience of the museum.

Linen weaving loom, Ulster Folk Museum

I've let it be known that I absolutely must catch the linen weaver while she's working and I'm keeping an eye on the time to make sure that happens. Victor walks over with us. There's two impressive looms set up and at the smaller of the two a young woman is working away at her weaving. She jumps up to get out of the way of my photo and then we get talking. Well, it turns out we are kindred spirits. I knit circular lace shawls, she weaves linen, but it turns out that there's a LOT of similarities between these occupations in terms of the mental game and strategies for picking up errors early, that are required for success.  We are getting along so well, learning about the challenges of weaving, the larger loom and the mountain to be climbed to master it's operation, that time just slips past. We must have spent almost an hour there chatting enthusiastically, Victor's not interrupting, we're his only clients and I was clearly having a ball where I was so he didn't want to wreck that! (Thanks Victor) Eventually, we say our farewells, closing time is nearing and I really want to pop into the hardware shop before it closes.
As we walk over Victor tells us about the churches then we say farewell to him too and duck into the store. What a treasure trove. Some things are for display only but a whole raft of other items are actually for sale, oh if only we weren't restricted by weight limits for our luggage. We've really cut it fine timewise, but we make a few selections while chatting to the staff, thankfully they do take modern money to close the deal, and we're on our way back to the exit walking on air. What a fantastic time we've had. OH NO! We've forgotten to get back to the Carpenter's store as we said. I rush over, only to see him disappearing around a corner in the car park. What a shame. I start hatching fantasies about getting back here during our Belfast stay. I wish we could come back tomorrow.

Looking towards Carrickfergus from Helen's Tower

We are very keen to spend a bit of time actually relaxing in Helen's Tower so there's pros and cons to our various dinner options, do we get a takeaway or dine in somewhere? Procrastinating about the decision we find ourselves back on the roof of the tower enjoying the views while the light lasts. We eat a lot of Thai at home, so it's not our first choice when travelling, but we decide we'll duck across to Newtownards and eat at Tuk Tuk. We're pretty early and it's just as well because Tuk Tuk is popular and tonight it seems, it's especially popular with groups of women and small families. Luckily we manage to get a parking spot just down the street a short way, outside the restaurant itself the parking spots are taken but seem to turn over pretty quickly as people pick up takeaway and go. I loiter having a look at the church nearby, again Hubby hurries me along. Poor man, this woman just won't stick to task.
There's absolutely no surprises in my order. I am totally going for the Prawn Pad Thai (I virtually always do) Hubby waits expectantly for a Thai version of Beef in a black bean sauce. We haven't seen that at Thai before. Just because we're greedy we get some home made dumplings too. Drinks? Hubby's again predictable with his Coke zero or nearest equivalent and I'll try the dragonfruit drink, that's something different. What a shame they don't have coconut juice with the one with the sweet and tender flesh.  We don't have long to wait for our food to come out and everything is entirely satisfactory, but we have a surprise in the presentation of the Prawn Pad Thai, it's draped in a blanket of omelette. Well! We haven't seen that before. I'm impressed it's served with actual lime and not just lemon as an easier and cheaper substitute. I break through the egg to the Pad Thai which is in all other respects entirely as we would expect. Delicious. Food gobbled our waiter comes back and he's visibly shocked but happy. "You've eaten everything!" he exclaims. Our puzzled "ah.... yeees, is there a reason we wouldn't eat everything?" extracts further explanation. Apparently local people tend not to realise the omelette is for eating, they think it's just for presentation. Of course we ate it. Omelette is delicious, why on earth would you throw it away?

Pad Thai from Tuk Tuk, Newtownards (eat the omelette)

We're out the door before 7 pm and homeward bound. Up to the sitting room quick stix, I light the beautifully built fire and settle in on the couch enjoying the fragrance of the burning peat and the dance of the flames in this oh so atmospheric space. Hubby's fussing about downstairs at first but eventually he joins me, sitting at the table, I look too comfy to disturb. Too comfortable to stay awake too. I'm asleep in minutes.