Hidden secrets

As we go through our world so heavily concentrating on where we should be, where we want to be, and when this must all happen , we sometimes miss out on the startling, the surprising, the secrets silently waiting to be found by the venturer that takes that one extra step, or that extra five minutes to seek and gaze.

This page hopefully brings some of these special places, objects and things into the light for us to appreciate and enjoy.... 

 My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the ....

Standing as a silent island in a sea of green manicured links and hemmed closely on one side by hard dark tracks of bitumen lies a guardian of secrets.  Hints of these secrets lie all around in the form of tomb stones and head stones.  But nobody can truly know the full depths of life, death, tragedy and rebirth this weathered weary witness has experienced.

Originally constructed in the 11th (?) century, no record was made of its existence... so many ecclesiastic settlements were born that those in the backwaters such as Ballycastle were never recorded. Burned and rebuilt a number of times, it saw attacks by Normans and became a church and later a friary.    Legends still exist of the Black Nun acclaimed for her accurate prophecies... the headstone still marking her burial in the grounds. 

Headstones as recent as the early 1990s show how this place still held special pride of place in the hearts of the people.  Newer, bright headstones mark the graves of those washed ashore from the sinking of Allied ships by U-boats.  

This is still a place where time seems to have been captured in some form, as you feel the ancient and the new still pulsing quietly waiting for the next turn of events  - for the witness to add to its myriad of secrets and mystery for future generations to wonder at in awe.

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 Beware the coast of smugglers bold!!