SquaresRenew 19: Ballycastle
Before we arrived in Bushmills we stopped for a cup of tea and a walk round the harbour area of Ballycastle. We loved these two sculptures, both showing a strong sense of moving forward.
Both are by Scotsman Malcolm Robertson and date from 2011. Above is Leap of Faith which depicts the different kinds of fish found in local waters. Below is Children of Lir which refers to one of the most famous legends in Irish Mythology. The four children of the god Lir were turned into swans by Aoife, their jealous stepmother. Her spell condemned them to spend 900 years in three different parts of Ireland, including here.
I refuse to square this beautiful picture of the beach at Ballycastle! As you can see, the weather was now glorious and it stayed that way for the whole of the weekend we spent at Bushmills.
Part of Becky’s SquaresRenew Challenge, using images from our April 2024 trip to Northern Ireland to illustrate one or more of the following:
- Move forward
- Reconstruct
- Renew
- Burgeoning
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
I love the Children of Lir sculpture, and that beach at Ballycastle is lovely!
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That whole coast was lovely, I wish we had had more time there. The weather helped, obviously.
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Cooperating weather always helps!
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You keep finding incredible sculptures, Anabel. The ‘leaping’ comes through brilliantly!
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It does. Even more sculptures to come!
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What a clever way to illustrate the movement of the fish and birds. And I agree, there are sometimes when you just can’t square a photo. Gorgeous beach.
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It was! Just somewhere we passed through quickly, but worth a proper revisit some day.
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The sculptures are very good as was the weather. You can’t ask for much more. How was the food?
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We were very lucky with the weather that weekend. The food was very good everywhere we went. Here we were headed for the Bushmills Inn which had a great restaurant.
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I also like those two sculptures a lot. There’s a lot of life in them.
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Yes, you actually feel the movement.
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That looks an amazing place. Do not remember that many fantastic white sand beaches in Ireland, North or South, but probably because we were more focused on climbing hills but we did also see a lot of the western coastline as well. Not so much of the east coast. On thinking about it the Atlantic Ocean is really powerful down that side of Ireland with huge rollers pounding the coastline. Maybe that’s why limited sandy bays there and more cliffs and bare rock. Bob. BSS.
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The Antrim coast does have a lot of golden strands, and we did find some on the west too – Donegal, but we weren’t terribly far south.
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Hi Anabel – all three stunning photos with storylines … that beach looks glorious – cheers Hilary
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It was! Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go back there, it would have been nice to explore more.
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Fabulous blue sky and I love both sculptures but especially Children of Lir 😃
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Yes, it’s a beauty.
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They’re very uplifting sculptures, aren’t they? And yes, there’s definitely a time and place for squaring, and it’s not there!
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They are, Jo – and squaring would definitely have ruined that beach shot!
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You were right not to square that last one! And loving the squared sculptures too
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btw currently listening to Difficult Women by Helen Lewis, and she cannot praise Glasgow’s Women’s Library enough. I wonder if you were one of the people she met?!
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No, nearest I have come to her is watching Have I Got News For You! In which she is usually very good.
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What a glorious beach! And sky! As Margaret says there are some great sculptures and sculptors in NI. You should get a job at the tourist board.
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The sky helped a lot, didn’t it? Though the sculptures might also have looked good against grey.
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You seem to be showing in these posts that there’s a strong urge to promote sculpture and sculptors in NI just now. That seems a real positive.
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We certainly found a lot! Perhaps part of the general renewal towards becoming the sort of country people want to visit again.
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👍
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Beautiful sculptures, I think Children of Lir is my favourite – I thought the legend was quite sad when I first read about it. Love the beach too, I could quite happily spend some time there.
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Yes, it’s a poignant story. The beach was beautiful. We meant to go back but didn’t have time.
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