Walk up yesterday's beach a little and you get to the Barmouth - where the River Bann flows out to the big sea. The name Barmouth reflects the presence of a 'bar' at the mouth of the river - a shoal of sand thrown up between the tide and the fresh-water current of the Bann. Before the bar was regularly dredged, ships' pilots had to be extremely careful not to touch one of these sandbanks, since once the ship had grounded there was little chance of getting free and the waves would soon break up the vessel. The piers or moles which are at the entrance to the Bann were first built in 1880 and since then dredging has been performed regularly to make the river mouth more navigable.
The last major incident, you may like to know, was the
Burgundia, which struck the left pier you see below as it was leaving the Bann in 1981 and was carried onto Castlerock beach. It was towed away for scrap a few weeks later. What's that - it's cargo? Ah come on now - you're pulling my leg. Potatoes, of course...
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| Dog-Hound-Thing on the West Mole at the Barmouth |
Turn the other way and you see this - the wide expanse of the river just before it enters the Atlantic Ocean. Horrible snap, I know - but sometimes it happens, y'know.
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| River Bann at the Barmouth |
Lovely snaps and good looking dog-hound-thing as usual mate!
ReplyDeleteInteresting story of the area as well. I like to read about stuff not known to me from before, which makes this a perfect thing to do... even though I'm in the middle of the scanning process to get that post done. You know the story I guess?!