Once upon a time in a far away kingdom...

No. Not just yet. Before I tell you who is Lady Sea Hag I will bring you to Crawfordsburn Park where I got to know about her. And please just a moment of your precious time, I want you to know her story. So please read 'till the end.

Welcome to Crawfordsburn Country Park!

This park is situated in Helen's Bay, Northern Ireland between Bangor and Holywood. This picturesque park has the spectacular view of the beach and would be wonderful for a family day out!

The Beach

Kids flying kites

Just have a walk

Grab an Icecream

There are lots of facilities that includes the very informative visitor centre, geology garden, picnic area, running trail and play area. Parking is free and there are toilets and café onsite.

Crawfordsburn Park is open all year round from 9:00 am - 19:00 pm.

Inside the Crawfordsburn is the information what the park has to offer. The park homes numbers of wildlife including:

STOAT

Their babies are called Kits. And they live in dens or burrows from rabbits or voles.

HEDGEHOG

Their babies are called hoglet. And they live in burrows or nest they build themselves.

BADGER

Their babies are called Cubs. A family group of about six badgers live below ground in a Sett.

RABBIT

They are smaller than hares. Their babies are called Kittens. They live below ground in a Burrow. Lots of burrows together form a Warren.

And the Fox..

Lots of birds like jays and grey wagtails you can hear them while you're walking in the woods.

And here, with all the displays will let you know what nature does for us and how can you help in every little way. They will let you know about the birds and how they are a vital part in the ecosystem. They will remind you that long long time ago before humans took place, everywhere was a home for wildlife of every size.

This is a perfect place where the parents can explain their children about our environment and how to care for our mother nature. That everything is important even a wildflower or rubbish they will throw in the sea. That everything is connected and there are a cause and effect.

And here's where I saw Lady Sea Hag and read her story. A story that is not just a story.

The tide slides in and out, to and from our shores twice a day and has been doing that since time began. We look at the ocean and only see what's on top. What goes on under the ever-rolling waves is a mystery to many of us who will never see underneath. Apart from the fish and other marine creatures, who or what lives there? Well, there is a lady who has lived and grown and changed with the ocean for thousand of years ~she is called the Sea Hag and is, in her own way, a picture of what are seas are like; a picture from the past, the present and very probably, the future!

When Ireland was covered in forests, when wolves, Irish elk and mammoths roamed in those forests, when the sea was wider, when the dinosaurs were here ~so were the oceans and so was our Lady Sea Hag. But when man (homo sapiens) appeared many thousands of years ago, that changed everything. Lady Sea Hag began to see a change in her beloved ocean. Her waters had been crystal clear and perfectly clean ~so much so that she was able to wear her skin ~skin like a mermaid would have but smoother and it was silvery, glowing colour.

But as the centuries went on, the water began to become a darker colour; material was emptied into her world which hurt not just the ocean life but her. Her beautiful silvery skin began to hurt badly as someone had spilt lemon juice onto a cut. So she began to cover her skin with some of the strange things she found floating beside her in her ocean world.
She came to Ireland because it was a smaller place and there weren't so many humans there. She hoped that she would be safe here. She watched as invading tribes built castles like Carrickfergus Castle. She wept when she saw people dying of hunger when there was so much food in the sea. She smiled her beautiful smile when the wars, that sent so many ships and men to the bottom of her world, ended. And all through these hundreds of years, it seemed like her ocean world become a dumping ground for all the world's poisons.

As time went on, Lady Sea Hag changed. She was no longer the beautiful silvery creature of the sea that once she was. Radiation had killed her hair and in place of it, she wore strings of plastic bags. Her lovely smile was replaced with bits of rotting wood and no one has any idea what her silvery skin looks like as she is covered with remnants from the sea. She uses plastic cups, bottles, plates and wrapping to cover her body then ties it all together with bits of rope, string and more plastic cups. She tries to make herself lovely again by adding shells and bits of cloth.

At the moment she is living in a cave in Greencastle waiting patiently for things to change. She lives there because she remembers Robert the Bruce hiding in a cave on Rathlin Island seven hundred years ago who learned about waiting for things to change from a spider. She admired him so much that she felt that surely, waiting for humans to learn from their mistakes wouldn't take that long.. Poor Lady Sea Hag! She wakens some morning choking on plastic and covered in the dirt from our homes.
She is now afraid that she will die before humans realise what they are doing to our seas. She has nothing left but a whistle ~a long lonely whistle which is a call for help from her to humans in the hope that they will help to save the sea. But will they ever hear her and if they do, will they listen? Bits of her keeps falling off and can be found on most of our beaches.
She has to keep remaking herself as the tide pulls off some of her plastic covering. She drags her weary body around the coastline trying to call out to us all. So when you see bits of rubbish on the beach, it will be part of Lady Sea Hag. Pick up that rubbish and save it from going back into the sea to kill fish.
Sadly she has no proper name as everyone looks on her as rubbish. Give her a name; make her dream come true ~her dream of a cleaner sea again, a sea where fish can live and breathe, a sea where the coral reefs and the plant life under the sea can grow again, a sea which is safe for us all and for her.

Now you read her story,

Can you make her dream come true?

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

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