Runkerry Strand, Portballintrae (and another rant)

About a month ago we were out for a late afternoon walk in Portballintrae.  I had the 'Blad with me for good luck. The light was strong and the clouds were quite unusual - just hanging low in a line across the sky as if they were suspended by some invisible wire:

Runkerry Strand, Portballintrae. HP5+ on Adox MCC paper

Just over the headland lies the Giant's Causeway - 'owned' as it is by the National Trust, or so they like to think.  When I lived in the South of England I rather liked the National Trust - they seemed to do good work, purchasing, restoring and maintaining big old houses and grounds and then opening them to the public (for a fee, of course).  I didn't have too much problem with the fee in those days - it seemed reasonable, since you could see where the money was being spent.  But I've gone full circle with the NT - I'm no longer a fan.  Take two properties the NT runs here - the Giant's Causeway and Portstewart Strand. The Giant's Causeway is one of the most visited places in Northern Ireland - over a million in 2017.  There's the obligatory multi-million pound visitor's centre, which seems to me to have 4 functions: to take the entrance fee, to take more money in the visitors' shop, to take even more money in the coffee shop/restaurant and to provide a child's-like video 'experience' of the history and folklore of the place.  I went once, when we had friends over from The Netherlands. The video was a bit of an embarrassment, I thought - suitable for 5 year olds, maybe, but we learnt nothing.  From what I could see, there was nothing remotely informative about the formation of the stone formations.

The thing is, there is actually a public right of way to the Stones - so visitors don't actually need to buy a ticket at all.  But you would have a very hard time believing that from the signage the NT have erected around the site - all of which is, of course, designed to drive footfall to their visitor's centre and inviting people to pay the 'entrance' fee.  Eventually the NT did release a statement stating that it "respects people's rights to walk to the Causeway via the public right of way" but it had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do so.  And the Causeway isn't like a great big old country house with huge maintenance costs - no, it's my view that this is a great big old Cash Cow for the NT. 

And I can't mention the NT and the Causeway without a link to the story of how the NT forced a small souvenir shop which had been run by a local family for over 70 years to relocate - read it here.  This was the smallest little shop on the planet - what was the NT worried about, competition? 

Moving on to Portstewart Strand - a place I go to very often since it's just down the road from me.  The access road to the beach used to be owned by the local golf club but a few years ago the NT made them an offer they couldn't refuse and bought it.  You can walk onto the beach for free but since the nearest car park is some way away most people visiting the beach park up at the entrance - for which the NT charges a handsome amount (£6.50 last year).  Not too bad if you're there with the family for a whole day but if, like me, you're a local just there for a walk it's a bit steep - especially if you want to go there a few times in the week. If you get there before 9 in the morning then you can get on for free - otherwise you gotta pay.  In terms of maintenance of the beach (which was doing fine for the few thousand years before the NT got it's greedy paws on it) there is some, I will admit.  But a lot is done by volunteers and there really isn't a lot of work required - the odd digger required to help out in the dunes and move sand from one location to another, that's about it.  No, Portstewart Strand, like the Causeway, is a very nice little earner for the NT.

And now there's that whole thing about copyright of photographs taken on, or of, NT properties.  If you're making money by selling said photographs, keep your head down, as the National Trust will soon be after you - either for damages or to suggest in future you buy a licence from them.  And they almost certainly will have better lawyers than you...

Rant over. 

Runkerry Strand, above, is not owned by the National Trust.  I like it there, even if it is a bit of drive away...