To the Lighthouse: a year on Blackhead Path
Just over a year ago, I gave up my regular civil service job and embarked on a freelance adventure. But without the framework and discipline of the daily commute, it is easy to slip into slow days and procrastination. And the commute, especially by train, offers a space for thinking, planning and reviewing the work on one’s plate. So at my partner’s suggestion, I set myself the target of trying, at least a couple of days each week, to leave the house with her and walk our local coastal path.
I posted a short video of one of these walks a while back . But I thought it might be interesting to chart the year just past as it revealed itself walk by walk, season by season, and in doing so give you a taste of what the Blackhead path holds in store.
The path runs from the promenade of our village, Whitehead, along a rocky shoreline, up onto a headland where a lighthouse marks the opening of the mouth of Belfast Lough, and either loops back down onto the shoreline and cuts across the shoulder of Muldersleigh Hill and past a local golf course onto the road to Islandmagee.
(Map reproduced from the Walk NI website.)
On summer days and at weekends the path sees up to 1,000 walkers. In the early morning of the working week, only a few joggers and dog-walkers nod to each other. The postman lifts a laconic finger from the steering wheel of his van as he passes those who have stepped down onto the shingle. On this first stage, I’ve seen heron and curlew, rabbits and bats. Two chunky glacial erratics, traditionally known as the Wren’s Eggs, frame sunrises over the Copeland Islands to the south east.
The Wren’s Eggs
Whitehead is named after the limestone headland beneath which it was built (the limestone has long been quarried away.) Blackhead is so-called because of the brooding face of basalt scowling out across the sea to Scotland. The rock is insecure, and rockfalls in recent years mean that the final shoreline section of the path has been closed to walkers.
People who are ignoring signs not to walk along a County Antrim coastal path are putting their lives at risk, the mayor of Carrickfergus has warned.
The battered path
But enterprising walkers do still swing round the locked gate. Beyond it, the sea and rain have carved deep caves into the basalt, which once attracted Victorian and Edwardian tourists. You can still see the rusting remains of the pathways which led dapper gents and crinolined ladies into the cave mouths.
Remains of a walkway
And then it’s up a steep flight of concrete steps that zigzag up the cliff face to the Blackhead lighthouse. Built in 1902 and manned until 1975, the lighthouse has guided thousands of vessels - including the famous Titanic - into and out of Belfast Lough.
Painting the lighthouse
Black Head (Antrim) Lighthouse is one of 70 lighthouses operated by the Commissioners of Irish Lights around the coast of Ireland and plays a vital role in maritime safety. It is also one of twelve lighthouses which make up Great Lighthouses of Ireland, a new all-island tourism initiative.
Visitors can stay in refurbished lighthouse-keepers’ accommodation (see the links below) with stunning views across sea and hillside.
Sunrise
Victorian stile
Once over the stile, a lane winds through farmland to the tiny hamlet of Blackhead - a few cottages only - and its field verges and hedgerows were rich in spring flowers and, later in the year, blackberries, rosehips and haws we foraged and made wine from.
Primroses near Blackhead village
Whins in spring
You can read more about the walk here and here. If you’re interested, details of the holiday accommodation can be found here. There are details of the great lighthouses project here.
If you’ve enjoyed reading about one of my favourite walks, it’d be great to be upvoted and resteemed. And if you visit, come and share a glass of hedgerow wine.