Life

Take on nature: Scoters, St Patrick and Strangford

The Anglo-Norman castle at Audleystown on the shore of Strangford Lough. Picture by Philip Walsh
The Anglo-Norman castle at Audleystown on the shore of Strangford Lough. Picture by Philip Walsh The Anglo-Norman castle at Audleystown on the shore of Strangford Lough. Picture by Philip Walsh

STILL as a Zen monk, a heron meditates on a rock that juts out from the rippling water. A scoter dives beneath the surface of the lough and comes up close to where the heron is perched.

The lanky bird remains static as the seaduck dips back out of sight for a small lifetime and I wonder if it has become trapped underwater, until it seems to just bob back, unflustered, to the surface.

I have slowed my pace to watch but the heron has seen my movements and launches itself from its perch to rise into the air with long languid beats of its wings. The scoter dives again.

In February the woodland along the shores of Strangford Lough at Audleystown is stripped bare, apart from scattered clumps of holly, but there is still a symphony of birdsongs coming from among the branches.

Two springs ago a woodpecker was tapping among the trees. It might have been back last year but I didn’t hear it.

Audleystown lies down a small potholed road that runs behind the National Trust-run Castle Ward estate, close to Strangford and overlooking Portaferry on the opposite shore.

Well-defined walking paths run beside Strangford Lough, through woodland and past open fields. Within a few square miles the landscape tells much of the history of Ireland and the people who settled here.

The lough itself and rolling drumlins that surround it emerged from beneath the melting ice sheets around 10,000 years ago.

Evidence of Ireland’s earliest settlers can be found at an uncovered cairn overlooking the lough. When it was excavated in the 1950s, human and animal remains were found as well as shards of pottery and flint tools.

In its original form the neolithic burial chambers would have been covered but the flagstones have collapsed inwards allowing a clear view of the cairn’s layout.

Further up the lough, St Patrick is said to have landed in the 5th century, close to Saul where he began his Christian mission to Ireland.

The name of the lough itself and the nearby village of Strangford are testimony to the era of the Vikings who first came to raid the monastic settlements along the shores but who subsequently settled the region. The Norse name was Strangr-fj?rðr (strong sea inlet).

That is in contrast to the more whimsical Irish name for the area, Lough Cuan (place of refuge), which is still favoured by local gaeilgeoiri.

Then there is a fine late Anglo-Norman castle at Audleystown dating from around 500 years ago and that used to be open, but seems to be constantly locked these days.

According to records the nearby beach forest was the site of a lost village which was demolished after the families who lived there were evicted and deported to America in 1852.

There is also access to the Castle Ward Estate, with eight miles of walks among woodland, lakeside and a glimpse into life in the `Big House’.

Back along the shores of the lough, you will often come across groups of cloak-wearing visitors being taken on a guided tour. On a winter afternoon their collective breath hangs in the air, shrouding them in an ethereal mist.

New age Celts? Christian pilgrims? Viking revivalists? No. Scenes from Game of Thrones were shot here and Audleystown is now one of the must-see stop offs for fans of the hit TV series.