UK Archives - Page 4 of 58 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Countries, Ireland, UK

Van up on Cyprus Avenue in Belfast at 80

31st August 202531st August 2025 funtime65

He’s been a grumpy old man all his life but today we celebrate Van up on Cyprus Avenue in Belfast at 80.

Few singers form the soundtrack of their city more than Ivan Morrison has for 60 years.

Perhaps The Beatles and Liverpool, The Proclaimers and Edinburgh or Simon and Garfunkel and New York.

As the BBC does on such occasions, it dug into its archives.

For a special concert from the Belfast boy for his 70th birthday in the street where he grew up.

Europa Birthday Van

It is a rare privilege to share a birthday with a superstar singer in concert.

But that was afforded we few, we lucky few, who were treated to cabaret dinner at the iconic Europa Hotel.

When Van exercised his jazz chops with Joey Defrancesco, as well as his Celtic Soul trademark.

As with everything with Van the Man there is always a mystery wrapped up in a riddle with his songs and his life.

Cyprus Avenue, of course, is more, much more, than just a street.

It’s a symbolic sliding doors moment in Van’s life as he sits in a car in his home town, planning his next move.

Which Belfastians, never short of a word, will be happy to explain to you on your Van Morrison tour of East Belfast.

In a Heartbeat

All courtesy of Irish Heartbeat Tours’ Van Morrison Walking Tour.

And follow in the footsteps of the Great Man in his childhood home on Hyndford Street.

The Hollow, made famous in Brown Eyed Girl. and, of course, Cyprus Avenue.

For its size of half a million people the great old port on the Lagan boasts world beaters in the world of the arts and entertainment.

Tours de force

And Irish Heartbeat Tour have you covered with a George Best House Tour and CS Lewis Garden Tour and Square Garden Tours.

Of course, you can go on your own 3.5km self-guided Van tour.

By visiting EastSide Visitor Centre.

Or by downloading the Van Morrison Trail Interactive Map to receive a map and access QR codes at various locations

Now we can’t guarantee that you’ll find Van up on Cyprus Avenue in Belfast at 80, although he does live back in now in Northern Ireland.

But we all of us whether we’ve been to Van’s town or not feel we know it from his Astral Weeks masterpiece.

Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Auld drinkie Edinburgh’s Rose Street Bar Crawl

30th July 202530th July 2025 funtime65

And being the dutiful host to Irish globetrotting Cuz we thought we’d go. For an Auld drinkie Edinburgh’s Rose Street Bar Crawl.

The Scottish capital is bathed in sunshine today, glistening off the Castle Rock.

And the buzz is about the upcoming Fringe and Festival.

And its citizens, as is their wont, are sat on the grass banks in Princes Street Gardens with their lattes and croissants.

There is, of course, another Edinburgh, Embra, if you will, of hostelries and revelry.

A parallel street of the arterial Princes Street, thoroughfare, namely Rose Street.

It’s certainly not what 18th-century New Town architect James Craig had imagined.

Hens and stags

But Rose Street has become synonymous with stag and hen and rugby parties on Rose Street 14 expeditions.

The challenge being to drink a pint in each of the street’s bars.

A Herculean task but one not beyond this party animal but only when he was a cub.

Slightly more grizzled, with snow under my bandana and on my beardie.

I’m breaking it up in numbers divisible of 14, only don’t ask me after the first couple of pubs.

Lining the stomach

Wiser now I’ve taken steps to allay the inevitable saur heid and gut by ensuring me and Eddie line our tummies first.

And that can only mean square sausage and fried egg rolls with sauce at Snax’ hole in the wall cafe.

Before hitting The Abbotsford, and we’re doing this backwards because it’s closer to our meeting point at Scott’s Monument on Princes Street.

And it’s a neat segue as the ornate island bar watering hole, dating back to 1907, is named for Scott’s Borders mansion.

You’ll find yourself at the back of the old Jenner’s department store amid the rigging of the refurb following the fire.

The Embra institution played a part commissioning famed brewery architect P.L. Henderson to design the new bar.

Give it a try

Rose Street, of course, has become a staple for rugby fans passing through for Six Nations matches at Murrayfield in the West End.

And Milne’s has been showing the British and Irish Lions matches, putting on the best Belhaven’s beer and hearty fare.

Cuz and myself partake the ale, all for research purposes you understand, and vow to return this Saturday for the final test.

Rock this city

Now because we’re old school, we skip the Great Grog Wine bar on account of it billing itself for its vino, that it shouldn’t be on a beer crawl.

And jump to the Black Rose Tavern which has made its name as a rock bar, and whose barkeeps are straight out of central casting.

Where we meet the first of our Irish bartenders, and they’re everywhere in the city.

And he points us away from the Portland brew and to the cheaper but none less tasty local IPA.

Hail to the Pale Ale

Something’s brewing: Rose Street Brewery

Now a little knowledge never goes amiss which is where this tour guide comes in.

And walk into any Scottish boozer and you’ll hear a punter at the bar asking for a pint of heavy which is similar to the English bitter.

Cuz has developed his tastes in the couple of months he has been here now, thankfully from the insipid Tennents.

And now imbibes McEwans 80/-, or shilling, which will do for now.

But it is my mission to introduce him to Scottish IPAs.

Or IPA, or Indian Pale Ale, a hoppy brew which was exported to the subcontinent in the mid-18th century.

And which has enjoyed a revival and a revolution, particularly across the States.

All of which we pass over as we sip Auld Reekie Ale in our next pit stop, the Rose Street Brewery’s own tipple.

One for the road

Near the midpoint of our crawl we find one of the original Rose Street bars, the Auld Hundred.

It started off life as a mission hall before being converted into an alehouse in 1800.

Confession time here, we forego the local Cold Town Beer for an old favourite.

The Staropramen Czech beer which with Urquell Pilsener is one of my fallbacks when I see it on tap.

Of course as is the way for any of us who go Walkabout we don’t get as far as we would like.

Before we get the hook from Mrs Cuz, who has been shopping in the nearby boutiques.

We get away with what the Cuzzes call a Juicy in their local, the Cumberland, further down the hill in the New Town.

Crawling home

Before I’m dropped back at Waverley Station and my train home to North Berwick.

Where I have only now emerged blinking into the daylight to share my thoughts on our first third of Rose Street.

We will be back to complete our mission, the Auld drinkie Edinburgh’s Rose Street Bar Crawl.

And maybe little wine drinker her, the Scary One, can take some of the pressure off by taking Mrs Cuz shopping.

And allow us to continue our research.

Countries, Sport, UK

What’s the deal with Trump Turnberry?

26th July 202526th July 2025 funtime65

And the question on every tourist’s lips today, naturally, is what’s the deal with Trump Turnberry?

Well, Trump Turnberry is one of two golf resorts the Scots-American owns in the land of his mother Mary, who was from the Isle of Lewis.

The other being Trump International in Menie in Aberdeenshire.

Now if you want to reach the US President just now he’s staying at Turnberry.

Though he’s likely not spending much time in the Presidential Suite.

And rather shooting the lights out on the Championship course.

Duel in the Sun

Rock of ages: Ailsa Craig in the background

Which those of you who are old enough will remember for one of the most famous Open Golf Championships.

Still known as The Duel in the Sun, then young pretender Tom Watson held off Jack Nicklaus under the baking (no, seriously) sun in 1977.

The Open has been contested three times since, delivering drama every time.

And champion golfers in Greg Norman, Nick Price and Stewart Cink.

That victory, on the last occasion the major was played in this idyllic corner of Ayrshire in 2009.

As memorable for Watson forcing a play-off at the ripe young age of 59.

A political golf ball

All of which doglegging around history leads us to the thorny subject of when the Open will be returning to Turnberry.

The course, which has unparallelled view of the Irish Sea and its famous rock, Ailsa Craig or ‘Paddy’s Milestone’ has become a political golf ball.

The R&A, which chooses the venues, said last year that Turnberry wouldn’t be considered.

“Until we’re comfortable that the whole dialogue will be about golf”.

Which, of course, was a not-so-subtle dig at the man we all recognise again as the Leader of the Western World.

I’m Scottish too: In his native New York

Although 50,000 signatories to a petition to stop the Open returning to Turnberry aren’t to be moved on that.

Thing is though that we might very well be on the home stretch with this one.

Not discounting another R&A objection that the infrastructure around Turnberry needs updating.

To accommodate the growing crowds who turn up for the four days of golf each July.

With numbers doubling from the 150,000 in 2009 to 300,000 now.

Turnberry bargaining chip

But the Donald will be wanting to leave with a W (that’s a win for those not down with the kids) from his game on his own course.

And his talks with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

And the 2028 Open Golf Championship host course has not been selected yet.

Not, of course, wanting to go against our own local course here near to North Berwick, the iconic Muirfield links.

But despite not being a golfer himself Starmer must know.

That Turnberry is the best bargaining chip he has with Donald Trump in his Trade Talks.

Whether anyone listens to us, and they should, we’ll leave it there.

Deal us in

Look at that: And views of the courses from your bedroom

Only to come back to the premise we set out with and what’s the deal with Trump Turnberry?

Well, you don’t have to be a champion golfer, or President, to stay there.

Trump Turnberry hotel offers 204 guest rooms, including 4 suites.

And the iconic two-bedroom suite at The Turnberry Lighthouse that rises above the ruins of King Robert the Bruce’s Castle.

All grand then and we found that it will set you back nearly four grand for three nights with a round at the Ailsa Course thrown in.

Although that would be good value for that duffer at a pound per shot!

America, Countries, Europe, Food & Wine, UK

Hungry and Thursday… National Ice Cream Month

24th July 2025 funtime65

You know how it goes, I scream, you scream, we all scream, and a reason presents itself now to revive our occasional series. Hungry and Thursday… National Ice Cream Month.

There are few foods which conjure up summer and holidays more than the frozen milk or cream dessert which crosses the social divide.

With King Charles (the first one who lost his head) gorging in ice cream which Marco Polo had brought from China, and was scooped up by European courts.

While the First Fathers were known to dig in with George Washington recorded as spending $200 on ice cream in the summer of 1790.

While Thomas Jefferson brought vanilla into the country and had an 18-step recipe for ice cream.

That ice cream kick

Of course one of the secret joys of ice cream has always been that it can carry an alcohol kick for curious kiddies.

And so it is with rum and raisin though we’re not always sure how much distilled molasses goes into your local scoop.

Unless that is you live in the Caribbean.

Where rum is laced through every breakfast, lunch or dinner, particularly over carnival.

And while we lap up every morsel of Bajan culture our favourite rum and raisin ice cream is in Tobago.

Sitting in the treetops bar at Castara Retreats with Porridge and Jeanelle.

Perhaps because we weren’t nursing a monster hangover from Bajan Foreday Morning, although the hair of the dog is always the best way to cure a sore head.

Il gelato

For many of us, of course, Italia, Il Bel Paese, is the home of the ice cream.

Il gelato conjures up the freshest fruits which brings all our senses alive.

Limone, frutti di bosco or even mandarino all have their takers but for us it has to be La Fragola.

After a day jostling through the alleyways of Venice, in the beating heat of the Roman Forum.

At the end of your Via Francigena into the Eternal City or at the foot of the funiculare in Bergamo.

Where for those who like their gelati extra milky.

Then La Marianna specialises in its signature milky scoop of ice cream heaven, stracciatella.

Our Scottish take with a little Italian

Now we all have our own variation to others’ ice cream.

In our own wee bit of Northern Europe, Italian influences are to the fore.

Because the story goes that when Italians were emigrating to America the ships would stop off in Glasgow for refuelling.

And the passengers who pre-Internet didn’t know what New York looked like got off thinking this was The Big Apple, and never got back on.

And so grew Scottish and Italian fusion with a particular favourite Irn-Bru, our vivid orange soft drink, ice cream a unique experience.

Now whatever, or wherever, you most like to be with your bowl, cone or wafer.

You’ll not be alone because somewhere in the world it’s Ice Cream O’Clock.

So just enjoy it, it’s Hungry and Thursday… National Ice Cream Month.

Countries, Ireland, UK

Coronation Street where you never retire

23rd July 202523rd July 2025 funtime65

For everyone else born in 1960 they’d be preparing for their bus pass now, but not on Coronation Street where you never retire.

In old money the world’s oldest continuous TV soap opera would be putting on the slippers and filling the smoking pipe in December.

That was until the powers that be decided to get us all to work longer, and they’re at it again with a new review.

Corrie will have to wait until December next year to pick up its pension at 66.

But there is, and always will be, life in the old cobbles yet.

Friends across the water

The everyday joys and travails of the residents of Coronation Street are, of course, followed by the peoples of the world.

And few more so than those just across the water in Ireland.

Possibly since the neighbours did an uber house swap of sorts with the amount of Irish who relocated to Lancashire.

All of whom are catered for on Celtic Horizon Tours’ two-nighter visiting the Corrie and Emmerdale village sets.

Which again we’ve been steered to by our friends at the Irish Travel Agents Association.

Super soaps

You’ll travel by coach and ferry nights and stay B&B at Bolton Stadium Hotel.

No visit to Emmerdale would be complete without taking in The Woolpack, Café Mainstreet, Davids’s shop.

With a half day visit to Cheshire Oaks.

And a guided tour of the external sets Coronation Street and Emmerdale village.

With a (and get this) meet and greet with a current cast member from Coronation Street.

And you’ll be able to immerse yourself in all those iconic destinations.

Tour de force

Your guides will share secrets from the shows.

And you’ll get to channel your favourite characters in the crafted replica sets.

So have your camera at the ready to strike a pose behind the Rovers Return bar.

And have a Lancashire bacon butty at Roy’s Rolls.

All this from €445pp with dates until September 19.

And what’s best of all is that you’ll be travelling with your soap fan family and friends’ nuts.

Because it is based on ten adults travelling.

Extra special

There are extras too with a single room supplement at €112.

Travel Insurance at €26 per adult/€13 per child.

And an €18 supplement per person if picking the coach up outside Dublin.

And so because we’ll never give up on our favourite soaps.

Pencil in a date for your trip to Coronation Street where you never retire.

Countries, Ireland, Pilgrimage, UK

Bruce, the Scottish and Irish Lions and a united Celtland

18th July 2025 funtime65

And for the weekend that’s in it an opportunity to mark Bruce, the Scottish and Irish Lions and a united Celtland.

Because what we don’t get taught in school is that Scotland and Ireland were indeed united for what must have been three glorious years.

Under the banner of Edward Bruce from 1315-1318.

And you might be familiar with his brother Robert, the King of the Scots, aka Chris Pine,

An alternative future

Edward Bruce’s reign may have been short lived but it offered a tantalising look into an alternative future.

For these Celtic peoples and indeed the Norman Anglo-Irish and their descendants.

Of course, for these weeks in this the year of the Lord 2015.

On sporting fields a thousand miles away in a different colony, Australis, we are all one team.

A British and Irish Lions rugby union select.

And woe betide anyone who abbreviates that to British Lions.

Or worse as in the case of passport pilferer Tony Cascarino who miscalled the elite combo England despite representing Ireland.

My noble bloodline

Now thanks to the excellent Sky History Channel and your favourite blogger’s obsessive interest in the past.

We can relive the days After Braveheart when Scotland and Ireland mastered perfidious Albion.

While the might of the English (and entrapped Welsh) armies and the British Empire colonised Ireland for 700 years.

The Irish and the Scots have managed to stay close through bloodlines.

With this descendant of Irish and Scots stock.

As a Murty, a direct descendant of the High King Muirchertach of Brian Boru’s blood.

And I’m not making this up!

And say an Ave there for me

And so if Edward Bruce’s name was not writ large in English-told history it does not mean we cannot honour him here.

Or point historians, patriots or those who just like a good story to his plot.

At Faughart Cemetery, near Dundalk in County Louth.

Near the modern lines of a border between the North and South of the island of Ireland.

We’re sure his spirit will welcome any of a Scots and Irish set who pays a pilgrimage and says a prayer.

And celebrates Bruce, the Scottish and Irish Lions and a united Celtland.

Countries, Sport, UK

Orkney’s your topical island

15th July 202515th July 2025 funtime65

Aye, ye read that richt… Orkney your topical island as the draw for aw the ither peedie islands of the world tae show aff their sporting skills.

All of which boils down to the Scottish archipelago off the northernmost bit of the British mainland playing host to the world games of small islands.

That they micht spik funny tae yer English-speaking or Atlantic drawl or Antipodean ear.

Or ither places where the language of Shakespeare has taken hold is yer problem.

Because the Orcadians willnae be changing their dialect which is derived from Ancient Norse for abody.

The best wedding gift

On account of the islanders being Norwegians for nearly 600 years before they were annexed by Scotland along with their sister islands in Shetland further to the north in 1472.

Because the Vikings hadn’t stumped up a dowry payment for Margaret of Denmark promised to James III of Scotland by the family of his bride Margaret of Denmark.

And you’ll learn that here but so much more if you take a dander up to Orkney, ten miles off the northern coast of Caithness.

As Daughterie and her young man did only recently.

While her globetrotting Da is still to, another example of how we all know foreign shores so much better than our own.

Fun and Games

Now 24 countries are participating with more than 2,000 competitors in the NatWest Island Games in Kirkwall.

On Mainland, one of 20 inhabitable islands in the 70 that form Orkney.

Now this is the 20th iteration of the gathering which started on the Isle of Man back in 1985.

Many of the activities you would associate with the bigger international Games are on the programme.

And naturally because we’re dealing with islands here watersports are particularly keenly contested.

Water of life

Packed out: The Games have brought out the crowdsw

The Island Games are of course in miniature to the more celebrated global events.

But they pride themselves on their own individuality.

And despite being only 40 years old the actual islands have been around for thousands of years.

A traditional symbol of the games was started in 1991 when Aland in Finland asked all teams to bring some water from their islands.

They mixed it in a fountain and in all subsequent games water from the previous fountain has added samples of water.

From each island competing in the new games.

All creating a symbol of “mixing together”.

God’s own island

All of which preamble is our attempt at getting you to visit Orkney, your topical island.

And take in its many charms, culinary, cultural and historical.

The Neolithic village of Skara Brae lies near the white beach of the Bay of Skaill.

Uncovered by a storm in 1850, the site presents a remarkable picture of life in Orkney around 5,000 years ago.

Orkney has had its fair share of visitors, and remember that this is a nature-lover’s idyll with puffins a particular favourite.

More surprising might be that it was home to Italian POWs in the Second World War who left their mark.

In The Italian Chapel made out of two Nissen huts.

And transformed into a beautiful house of God by Domenico Chiocchetti and his colleagues.

Worth a prayer you would think for the competitors this week.

Countries, Culture, Europe, UK

Hello Good Bayeux

12th July 202512th July 2025 funtime65

Hello Good Bayeux I don’t know why you say Hello I say Good Bayeux.

And apologies to The Beatles who really have nothing to do with this yarn other than this being a magical mystery tour.

Of course, Keir Starmer is claiming the loan of the William the Conqueror Battle of Hastings drape as a victory.

But the reasons are rather more prosaic and more to do with filthy lucre.

As the Bayeux Museum is undertaking a two-year €35m refurb back in Normandy.

Which obviously means the French need somewhere to store the cloth.

Merci bien

Cynics will say that Emmanuel Macron will have extracted a price from Britain in the swap.

And while we’re not sure if the Sutton Hoo ship burial, the Lewis chessmen and other artefacts have the same pull as the tapestry.

It will bring coins into the coffers.

Of course, Britain won’t be giving away a look at the tapestry.

And although entry to the British Museum in London is gratis special exhibitions come at a cost.

The price of cloth

And judging by the £18 admission price for current display Hiroshige: artist of the open road we can expect Bayeux to be pitched considerably higher.

Particularly as the 230ft long and 50cm high tapestry features 58 scenes.

In four stitches and thread in 10 natural dye colours.

Including 623 humans, more than 700 animals, 37 buildings and 41 ships and other vessels plus 94 penises, or they could be swords.

We’ll leave you then to do the math with Bayeux reporting they see 400,000 visitors a year, charging €12.

And, no we don’t know the ancient Norman or English for Kerching.

Scotland’s story

Of course, while Bayeux may be the world’s most famous drape we in our northern outpost of Scotland boast our own cloth.

Now the tapestry may be rather newer at 12 years old than Bayeux.

Which dates back to 1070 but Scottish history is just as old and illustrious as its neighbour.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland is housed appropriately in the weaving town of Galashiels in the Scottish Borders.

With tickets priced at £12.50.

Game of Thrones in Belfast

Sew naughty: The Game of Thrones Tapestry

The power of the tapestry is clearly still as absorbing to modern advanced sensibilities as it was to illiterate Medieval peasants.

And, of course, it is always a blank canvas to weave whatever story you wish to tell.

With inevitably Game of Thrones getting in on the action in its spiritual home of the North of Ireland.

At the excellent Ulster Museum in Belfast where those who like their tapestries guttural can see a murder on the privy.

And all free but we’d recommend you make a donation.

So Hello Good Bayeux to the latest tapestry addition to these islands, albeit temporary with the exhibition slated for September 2026.

And just think even if you do have to shell out £18 that’s probably 20p each Willie.

Countries, Sport, UK

Open for golf business

11th July 202511th July 2025 funtime65

And as East Lothian’s economy yields £8m from our tourney and the oldest major returns to Portrush, our corners of the planet are officially Open for business.

The Open Golf Championship is certainly a hospitality money-spinner.

With Northern Ireland taking in £100m to the coffers and the Causeway Coast and Glens area directly benefiting with £26m back in 2019.

Probably better not to mention that my friends at Discover Northern Ireland afforded me hospitality six years ago.

And Savannah and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, generously hosted me last year in Royal Troon on the west coast of Scotland.

The home of golf

Now any destination that gets to put on a big sporting event comes with a premium for player and spectator alike.

And I’m always reminded, at this time of the year, of an old work colleague whose parents rented out their home in St Andrews.

The champion golfer’s brothers had approached the couple, who had put their names forward as a rental home.

And asked if they could take it, offering to pay top dollar and putting on a conservatory for them.

All of which paid off when Steve Ballesteros won the Claret Jug.

Up for rent

Timing is, of course, everything and alas our arrival in North Berwick has come at a time when the nearby Muirfield championship course is off the rota.

A course of such a standard and historical significance that the great Jack Nicklaus named his course Muirfield in Ohio after it.

So the opportunity to rent out our own demesne to a Tiger Woods or a Rory McIlroy will have to wait.

The golden ticket

The Open Golf Championship rolls into Royal Birkdale next year and the R&A and golf fans are already preparing themselves.

For us in East Lothian, already putting on a show for the Scottish Open dress-rehearsal for next week’s main event.

We say, haste ye back to Muirfield. We’re Open for golf business.

And if that means we can earn a pound or two on our house for a week and the local economy too then all the better.

Countries, UK

East Lothian the best of beaches in Seacliff… get our drift

10th July 202510th July 2025 funtime65

I’m reminded every day how fortunate I am to be living in the most sought-after town in the country and now I learn that this county here East Lothian boasts the best of beaches in Seacliff… get our drift.

Only this week (and it has been a few months since the last time) we rehashed why we left another prize-winning idyll, Greystones in County Wicklow, in Ireland.

For North Berwick on the east coast of Scotland.

Of course, I hear husbands everywhere screaming ‘just say you’re right’, and they would be correct, and I did.

As much as I miss the land of my mother, it makes it ever harder to push my case.

When praise is continuously heaped on this little corner of Scotland, just a half an hour east of Edinburgh.

For a place I like to joke is ‘God’s waiting room’ with its own ‘Olden Mile’ it is hotting up.

And that’s not just the balmy climes that are drawing visitors far and wide.

Golfing and gigging

Watch for the trees: Archerfield Walled Garden

The Scottish Open Golf Championship has attracted the world’s top players to the Renaissance Golf Club in Archerfield.

Where, shameless plug here, the likes of Nick Faldo have been known to pop in to the Archerfield Walled Garden.

To buy the wares from the best horticulturalist in the business (She told me to say that).

And the Boomtown Rats, the Bluebells, Ezra Collective, Irvine Welsh and Rory Stewart are among the acts who will perform at the Fringe By The Sea next month.

Of course with so many luminaries passing through the upmarket coastal town we’re tempted not to keep Seacliff to ourselves.

Rock up to the Drift

But then the Drift cafe, with arguably the best views of Bass Rock, even more so than the Seabird Centre in North Berwick, then the secret’s already out.

And you’ll want to book ahead for a window seat.

A Mecca for cyclists and trekkers, you can also drive up to it.

Seacliff fans are known to make a day of it in getting there.

And when there, descending the cliff to go for a dip and then returning to avail of the sauna pods outside the cafe.

Escape Sauna offers an open session or you can book privately for a session for up to five people.

And a nod to Portstewart in Ireland

Well seen then that travel journalist Chris Haslam picked Seacliff out as his best in Scotland.

After visiting 756 beaches and 51 resorts throughout Britain and the North of Ireland.

Now with all this on our doorstep we’re not going to be churlish about Portstewart Strand in County Derry winning the overall award.

And the only way to approach it is on the train.

From Belfast around the strand en route to my Mum’s own Co. Donegal.