Hilltown - Banbridge

Hilltown to Banbridge

A bad weather forecast put off the younger members of our squad today.  Typical!  Only two of us OAPs made it to the start line for the 16 mile trek.  First stop along the river was the derelict Ballycoshone mill.

Mice, in cages, get food when they do this - no such luck for us.

Clonduff Church on a minor road near Rathfriland.  This remote church was the unlikely home of Margaret Byers, the founder of Victoria College in Belfast.

A heated argument about Brexit - not sure who won.

Ballyroney Station is one of my favourite old buildings.  It's hard to imagine steam trains calling at this remote spot 70 years ago. Who got on, who got off?

Two goats....

Six goats.

Not what you normally expect to find along the River Bann.  This is apparently the set for Game of Thrones (Series 6).  Brian and I are not in it.

The Downshire Arms Hotel in Banbridge.  It's almost as old as us and a fine place to end today's run.

Spelga - Hilltown

Spelga to Hilltown

Another year and time for a new running blog.  At 4:00am one night in January, I heard the rainwater lashing against my bedroom window and the idea suddenly appeared as a vision - run the River Bann. It's just 100 miles long, including around Lough Neagh, so we should be back in time for Christmas.

Colin, Brian and MOD were mad enough to join me today.  We set off from Hilltown on a sunny March morning.  The highest point of the town is a fish - maybe a good omen for a river run?

The River Bann story starts at its source on Slieve Muck in the Mournes. This took some finding but Brian was able to verify the spot by tasting the water.

I've taken a bottle full of this holy water which we will add to the tea at a Victoria parkrun.  It's good stuff for runners, much more healthy than the usual Proseco so favoured by some of the women there.

We got down from the mountain, with a lot of slipping (wrong shoes), and made for Spelga Dam.  What a beautiful place this is.  I've given up on mountain running (too messy and dangerous for an old man) but still love jogging along these high roads through the Mournes.


This sheep was surveying an interesting thing below Spelga Dam ....

....... the Magnetic Hill, where it looks like you are going uphill but you are actually going down. There's money to be made here on bets - so bring your friends along one day.




It was then all downhill to Hilltown  - named after the Hills and not the hills, you probably need to be Irish to understand that.

 Brian decided to take to the water at this point and we fished him out again downstream in Hilltown.








The tradition is to end each of these runs with a plate full of food.  Here Michael demolishes the local speciality - a Gutbuster Fry - at K's cafe in Hilltown.   

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DISCLAIMER

Participation in runs by invitation only. All participants are to ensure their general health and physical fitness to complete the planned distance, and are to exercise their individual appropriate caution for all sections of the route including road traffic awareness. Any reference, in run blogs or other published material, to access over privately owned land should not be taken as an indication of a right of public access; in all such cases, check with the relevant landowner. 

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