I've mentioned The Cutts before, but I was up the other day for a wee walk around and very nice it was too. The Cutts is the name given to the stretch of the River Bann just up past Mountsandel, which was developed in the early part of the 17th Century about the same time as the big merchant guilds of London were gifted large areas of land around here. Coleraine was to be fortified (ramparts!!) and developed, and they needed timber, which was plentiful in the large forests upstream. At Mountsandel the river was too shallow to allow boats to pass so the large basalt rocks that formed the river bed were cut into several times (Cutts, geddit?) in order to allow larger boats to get to Coleraine, just a mile or so downstream.
It was also a great place for salmon, and the salmon fishery netted unbelievable numbers of fish - 62 tonnes in one day apparently. All proceeds to The Honourable The Irish Society, no less.
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| The Cutts at Mountsandel |
They don't look particularly interesting from a distance - although you can see the drop in the level of the river bed quite clearly - but walk up a bit closer (noting the kingfishers which are always around this stretch of water) and things get a little more exciting...well maybe exciting isn't exactly the word I'm looking for, but you know what I mean, right?
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| Good fishing! |
Note the heron standing by the side of the river, hoping to catch his (or her!) lunch. Just to the left of the building (out of view, unfortunately) is a swan's nest, as I was informed by a friendly chap who happened by - one of the staff who manage The Cutts. I'll see if I can't get a wee photo of it sometime soon, although it'll be from a distance, as I don't fancy annoying a fully-grown swan by getting too close.
Wouldn't that be the grand wee cottage for some-one who wants to go to sleep listening to the sound of lapping water? You'd need to like fish, I should imagine, but at least you'd get no bother from the neighbours - and there's a lot to be said for that, isn't there?!
More to come tomorrow from this neck of the woods, or river if you get my drift.
I really liked these two Michael. Maybe thought there was something odd about the upper one at first, but when I looked at it in it's full glory (full screen) I found the bird upper right to fill in what seemed to be missing at first. Great job! The second one is just brilliant! Nothing more to be said about that one :))
ReplyDeleteThanks Roy - I like this place a lot. It's like anywhere near water - it always seems different every time you go there.
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