A Walk Over The Drumlins

I know a lot of you like to come with me on my walks and today I am joined by a non birding friend who visited me while I was at my caravan.  We had only recently become reacquainted, having been in the Bangor Operatic Society many years ago.  This walk takes us up and over the Drumlins and down to the sea again.  It will show you on the video what kind of scenery surrounds me at the ‘old caravan’. 

  

Firstly I am showing you some still of wildflowers, unnamed as I am uncertain however if anyone has them on the tip of their tongue I would appreciate that and I will add the name to the post.

 

                                                            1. Dame's Rocket - Hesperis matronalis

 2. Close up of above

           3.

                                                                                4.

  5. Violet

                                             6. A collection of wildflower along the farmers' path

 
                                                                                 7. Bird'sfoot Trefoil

The following flowers are not wild however I did see them on the walk. 

Pussy Willow 

Periwinkle 

 Periwinkle in black and white

 Dimorphotheca

Dimorphotheca - Close up

 

 Horse Chestnut

Now I feel I should tell you a little bit about Drumlins in and around Strangford Lough.



Drumlin hills create a pleasant, rolling land and seascape dotted with islands and full of curved sheltered inlets – hence Strangford Lough’s ancient name “Loch Cuan”. 

 Strangford Lough sits amongst one of Northern Ireland’s most special landscapes – the rounded hills called drumlins that were deposited when the last glaciers retreated. The Lough’s islands are drowned drumlins in various stages of erosion.  As the ice melted, sea level rises created shores that later rose above the water as the enormous weight of the ice was lifted from the land. This formed the clearly defined raised beaches that notch most of the islands and coastal drumlins.

Raised beach deposits extend some distance inland on the Ards peninsula where they provide broad, fertile flats of shelly and pebbly soils amidst the heavier clays of the drumlins.

 Strangford Lough is the UK's largest sea inlet with over 120 islands or drumlins dotted throughout it's area. If you happen to be of a more romantic persuasion, legend says that there are 365 islands, one for each day of the year.  I believe there is one island for every day of the year!!

The human history of the area can be traced back 9000 years to when the first Mesolithic settlers arrived. People would have been attracted by the mild and fertile shores and by the food provided by the Lough. Since then successive waves of people have left a wonderful legacy on the landscape including cairns, exceptional monastic sites, tower houses, great estates and windmills – most of which are open to the public.

Seals, porpoise, thousands of overwintering birds, nesting terns are just some of the inhabitants.

Now I hope you are all ready for the walk with Joanne and myself. 

 It can be accessed at

http://youtu.be/DAObFchOeBE

  

I hope you enjoyed our walk, I think I should be working for the

Northern Ireland Tourist Board!!!!

Perhaps next year we will have an invasion of bloggers!!

Thank you for visiting and hope you will look in again.

THANK YOU ALL for your comments you left on any of my posts yesterday.

I am linking to the BIRd D'Pot
Thanks to Boom & Gary  for naming No. 2 & 7 of my wildflowers for me.
Thanks to Mary for naming No. 5 of my wild flowers for me.