LAGANSIDE, COUNTY DOWN, NI

I spent much of today mooching about in Belfast trying to recover from the rather horrible day I had yesterday. I was quite successful. I had a haircut, dealt with banking, laundry and postage, and spent enough time sitting in cafes that by about 2 o'clock, I really felt like a guy who could do something with the afternoon, seeing as it still doesn't get dark until about 9.30. 

​So, I set off to walk the River Lagan, which runs right through Belfast at its end, but which starts miles away up in the Mourne Mountains. This time, I checked in advance: was it possible to walk the river? Previous unresearched attempts to walk the Dee in Wales and the Mersey in Liverpool were a bit hit and miss. But the Lagan is well set up for walkers, with paths on both sides that last for a long way into Laganside, so I had a great afternoon.

I like to walk rivers, because they are often a key focus for folklore and archaeology, and there is usually something to discover, if you can get beside them. The River Lagan has been re-mythologised since the 19th century, when an Irish sculptor called Edward Smythe invented 12 river gods to decorate the Customs House in Dublin. One of these is the River God Lagan, who is shown in his sculpture as a Greek-looking bloke with swans coming out of his head. No such god exists in the original Irish texts. The swans are intended as a link with the story of the children of the Sea God, Lir, who were turned into swans for 900 years...but, they weren't ever located on the River Lagan itself. There is a more recent sculpture of the Salmon of Knowledge on the river path, but once again, the salmon in the original accounts wasn't found in the Lagan. It seems as though the folk of Belfast really want their river to be part of the main mythical cycles, even though it really isn't. 

The archaeology along the river valley is another story. At the end of my walk I found Giant's Ring, totally unprepared for how amazing it is in real life. It's the most impressive earthwork ring I have yet seen, with the exception of Maiden Castle. It's so big they once used it for horse-racing. It's a passage tomb from from 2700 BC with a massive earthwork ring around it, encompassing about 7 acres. An amateur archaeological dig in the 18th century uncovered large bones (possibly of a mastodon), leading the archaeologist to conclude that the ring was made by a race of giants. 

I walked back to Belfast (total trip about 15k), feeling pretty happy. More mooching about is planned for tomorrow, and maybe a trip to Strangford Lough. (It's 2am now, and I can't sleep, which may place plans for tomorrow in doubt, but I can try...)

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