England and Wales

[Admin Jaap]

Antonio, Jens and I start our B&B/camping trip to the Ulster meeting on mondaymorning 24th in Colchester. Plan is to take a touristical route to Holyhead where we take the ferry to Dublin on thursday.

 

Do you English and Welsh blokes know any points of interest (museums, viewpoints, nice towns, curvy roads, ect.) that we just have to see/visit? Plan is to include the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham.

Another question. Do we have to book Wales-Ireland-Wales ferries in advance?

[grossohc]

Dont know which port you are arriving in, but the lake district is worth a look around, before all the tourists crowd it out.

[Guzzirider]

Yes I would book ferries in advance just in case- may be cheaper too. It is also Bank Holiday weekend so there will be a lot of travellers heading for the ferries.

 

When I have a bit more time I will give it some more thought and come up with some ideas, but at the moment I am thinking Peak District / Mid Wales.

 

I was at the National Motorcycle Museum a few weeks ago- very interesting collection of British bikes- I would stay away from the area in rush hour though- maybe aim to get there late morning, and get away early afternoon- it is on the busy outskirts of Birmingham.

 

Maybe I could get a day off work and meet up with you- we are heading to a campsite at Dinas Mawddwy at the bank holiday weekend ourselves- there is a nice pub called the Red Lion where you can stay if you like- nice roads around there with little traffic.

 

Red Lion

[Bogwopit]

Antonio, Jens and I start our B&B/camping trip to the Ulster meeting on mondaymorning 24th in Colchester. Plan is to take a touristical route to Holyhead where we take the ferry to Dublin on thursday.

 

Do you English and Welsh blokes know any points of interest (museums, viewpoints, nice towns, curvy roads, ect.) that we just have to see/visit? Plan is to include the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham.

Another question. Do we have to book Wales-Ireland-Wales ferries in advance?

I'll be taking the overnight ferry from Liverpool to Belfast on the thursday evening-cabin inclusive of charge.Booked it weeks ago so don't know of current availalability

 

Andy

[belfastguzzi]

Just another suggestion. If you crossed to here earlier, you could avoid the Bank Holiday traffic and visit the Transport Museum just outside Belfast.

http://www.nmni.com/uftm/Collections/Transport-(1)/Transport-Galleries/Transport-Galleries

 

Not anything as big for bikes of course, but it has some interesting exhibits including Rex McCandless (Norton Featherbed frame) and other bike related inventions and history. There is a Joey Dunlop exhibition on. I haven't seen it.

http://www.nmni.com/uftm/What-s-on/Exhibitions/Joey-Dunlop--King-of-the-Roads

 

Another idea would be to book in to Ballintoy early and take a day or two to see Donegal (or the Fermanagh Lakes).

If you did that, I would see if I could get away a day early to join you.

This would be every bit as as spectacular as the extra Britain tour, but with the bonus of less traffic on the roads.

 

 

EDIT

I have asked about the Joey exhibition. It is very small. I'd say it's not worth travelling to see.

If you do consider arriving here a day or two earlier, better to see the country.

Edited May 16, 2010 by belfastguzzi

[belfastguzzi]

http://www.irishbike.com/guided_motorcycle_tours_of_Ireland/north_coast_donegal_guided_motorcycle_tour_ireland_green.html

 

http://www.irishbike.com/self_guided_motorcycle_tours_of_Ireland/north-of-ireland-self-guided-motorcycle-tour.html

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a78RUocSN3Y

[belfastguzzi]

Some of you like military museums.

 

Dunree

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgnY-jTYNNA

 

and

 

This is a fun-weird one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3frkXDDAHM

 

There was a big submarine base at Lough Swilly, near to where we will be staying

 

British submarines were also involved in Admiral Beatty's plan "Operation BB". This involved placing a large number of destroyers on the northern coast of Scotland so that U-boats heading out to sea would dive when they saw the destroyers. The plan was that they would resurface when the 'danger' of the destroyers had passed. However, for Beatty the destroyers were a decoy. It was believed that the U-boats would then surface where British submarines were stationed at periscope level. The submarines positioned here were the K-class and out of 37 U-boat sightings, none were sunk. However, the campaign against the U-boats heading to the Atlantic continued and three new submarine bases were established at Lough Swilly (Ireland), Queenstown (Ireland) and Scapa Flow. The submarines based here had one target - U-boats operating in the Atlantic, whether they were returning to Germany or trying to the Atlantic. In the later stages of the war, a sunk U-boat was considered a much greater prize than a sunk capital ship that was invariably cooped up in harbour. In the area that led to the Atlantic, 18 U-boats were destroyed by British submarines which compared favourably to the 41 U-boats sunk by 300 destroyers and the 32 sunk by 4000 Naval auxiliary vessels.

 

 

From Wikipedia

Lough Swilly

Location County Donegal, Ireland

 

Lough Swilly (Irish: Loch Súilí, meaning ""Lake of Shadows" or the "Lake of Eyes"") in Ireland is a glacial fjord or sea inlet lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal. Along with Carlingford Lough it is one of the two known glacial fjords in Ireland.

At the northern extremities of the lough are Fanad Head with its famous lighthouse and Dunaff Head. Towns situated on the lough include Buncrana on Inishowen and Rathmullan on the western side. At the southern end of the Lough lies Letterkenny.

The lough is also famous for its wildlife-watching (dolpins, porpoise, sea birds, migratory geese and swans) and diving on the numerous ship wrecks, including the SS Laurentic sunk by a German mine (possible torpedo), which went down with 3,211 ingots of gold of which 3,191 were recovered.

In the south of the lough a number of islands (Burt, Inch, Coney, Big Isle) were poldered and the land reclaimed during the 1800s for agriculture and the Lough Swilly to Derry City Railway embankments. These reclaimed lands are now regarded as one of Ireland's premier wetlands for wildlife conservation and birdwatching, supporting over 4,000 Whooper Swans and thousands of Greenland white front, Barnacle, Greylagg and Brent geese.

[edit]History

 

Steeped in history the Lough and the Grianán Ailigh hill fort (early fortification and palace dating from 2000- 5000 BC) at its southeastern bend was recorded on Ptolemy's map of the world. It has numerous early stone age monuments and Iron Age fortifications along its shores as well as a number of shell midden finds dated to approximately 7000 BC. It is most famous for its part in hosting what is known as Flight of the Earls. After a failed general uprising, in September 1607, Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell the last Gaelic chieftains and upholders of Brehon law in Ireland at that time, set sail from Rathmullan with ninety of their followers.

During the late 1700s a French fleet carrying Wolfe Tone of The United Irishmen fame and troops to assist in 1798 rebellion was intercepted and defeated in a naval battle at the entrance to Lough Swilly in October 1798. Subsequently Tone was captured and taken ashore at Buncrana on the east side of the Swilly.

 

 

Portsalon pier and Lough Swilly.

In 1804 or so the British built Martello towers to defend the approaches to Londonderry, including six at Lough Swilly. They were built in six months, cost €1,800 each, and were armed with smooth bore cannon, firing round shot.

On 4 December 1811, during a gale the Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo class frigate HMS Saldanha was shipwrecked in Lough Swilly. There were no survivors out of the estimated 253 aboard, and some 200 bodies washed up on shore.

Due to its natural shelter and impressive depth the Lough was always an important naval port from earliest times. Following the capture of Tone[disambiguation needed] and the real threat of a French invasion under Napoleon, a series of fortifications were built from 1800-1820 guarding the different approaches and landing points within the Lough. During World War I, the lough was used by the Royal Navy as an anchorage for the North Atlantic Fleet under Admiral Jellicoe and a gathering/staging point for North Atlantic convoys. During this period a boom was placed across the Lough supported by a number of trawlers to prevent U-Boat attacks. Immediately prior to World War I the British also improved the Napoleonic forts and their armaments as well as adding an additional fort at the entrance to the lough at Lenan Head with 9 inch guns (12 mile range) - the largest in Ireland at the time. The remains of these fortifications can still be inspected at Lenan Head, Dunree (now a military and wildlife museum), neds point- Buncrana, Inch Island and on the west coast at Rathmullan, Knockalla and Macamish point. After the Black and Tan war the Lough was also one of the Treaty Ports specified in the Anglo-Irish Treaty until its final handing over at Fort Dunree in 1938.

[belfastguzzi]

Just another option:

 

If you want to think about crossing earlier in the week and staying by the sea close to where we were last year and touring from there, you could have free accommodation in a static caravan.

 

I'm not sure where I have good photos of the place, on the web. There are some here, not great:

> Click here for Cloughey photos

 

[antonio carroccio]

I will not abrupt disturbing al those brilliant idea's but this will be in first case NOT a cultural trip to UK. The visit to some interesting place, event or what ever would be coincidence.

I would like to take the ferry to Ireland at Thursday noon, find some B&B and hit the roof in Dublin.

[belfastguzzi]

No one will be forced to make cultural visits.

 

I was just giving some response to Jaap's request for info on museums/places of interest.

[Admin Jaap]

A bike museum is considered cultural? What's next?

 

 

BFG, thanks for all the info! I'll be staying in Ireland a couple of days after the meet and do some site seeing

[Orson]

I'm no expert, as I just head out and see what I run into, but my trip reports might give you some ideas:

Wales I

Wales II

Wales III

 

The Brecon Beacons National Park, South Wales

 

South entrance to Snowdonia National Park, North Wales

[Slavomir Musilek (R.I.P.)]

I'm no expert, as I just head out and see what I run into, but my trip reports might give you some ideas:

 

 

Great pics Orson!!!

[Baldini]

Antonio, Jens and I start our B&B/camping trip to the Ulster meeting on mondaymorning 24th in Colchester. Plan is to take a touristical route to Holyhead where we take the ferry to Dublin on thursday.

 

Do you English and Welsh blokes know any points of interest (museums, viewpoints, nice towns, curvy roads, ect.) that we just have to see/visit? Plan is to include the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham.

Another question. Do we have to book Wales-Ireland-Wales ferries in advance?

 

Hi Jaap,

 

If it's any use to you, we are in rural Mid Wales (Orson's pic Snowdonia S Entrance is not far from here)- you could stay over if it suits - I know the roads round here pretty well & up to Holyhead - you might want to go up through Snowdonia which is pretty spectacular. I could most likely take a bit of time off work. There's also decent walking to be had in the hills, cycling, pub etc. In fact there's a bunch of us going walking in the mountains (Cnicht in Snowdonia) on 27th if you fancied that. Some nice roads on the way over from NEC too, esp if you drop a little South, head W on A44 then come up through Wales...SE England is pretty congested, esp N of London ... a direct route Colchester - NEC doesn't look very interesting but there are good, quieter, interesting roads if you stay off the main rat runs - needs a bit of luck/local knowlkedge tho. You might head N & W from Colchester if you have the time,across the fens (although perhaps nothing exciting in them for a Dutchman - flatland, dykes etc...) & go on to the Peak District - visit the Cat & Fiddle road - probably the most famous/notorious bike road in Britain ...

If we narrow exact areas down a little, I'm sure there's a bunch of interesting sites/roads/cafes/pubs etc. etc that others & I could suggest, I'd be happy to suggest roads, places I know enroute & can do a bit of thinking....

 

KB

[Baldini]

Maybe I could get a day off work and meet up with you- we are heading to a campsite at Dinas Mawddwy at the bank holiday weekend ourselves- there is a nice pub called the Red Lion where you can stay if you like- nice roads around there with little traffic.

 

Red Lion

 

Guy, know the pub, nice pint. If you/Jaap do arrange to meet up I'd like to get along too. Did you ever get my email re Mid Wales few months back?

 

KB