Glen Dun

There are 9 Glens of Antrim - this is Glen Dun (Gleann Abhann Duinne, or Glen of the Brown River - presumably due to the colour of the water from the peat bogs).

Yes, I know, it's a rubbish print.  Well, the sky isn't too bad, but Glen Dun is too dark.  I should have done a test strip first, but sometimes you just feel like getting on with it.

I re-did it, keeping the Devere light on for a little bit longer (for the sky) and at the same time ('cos I'm clever like that) dodging Glen Dun.

OK so the dodging bit was pretty rubbish - I didn't say I was any good at it, did I?  Anyway, now the sky is over-cooked.  And Glen Dun is washed out and horrible-looking.  So I reduced the time a little and dodged a little less.

I'm happier with the sky now, although I think the land could do with a bit more life about it.  In my defence the print is better looking than this scan - but you'll have to take my word for that.  Grade 4 on Kentmere VC.  I might come back to it another time.

Anyway, that little stream you can just about make out there on the right has a special significance in our family.  We used to come up here when we was little, you see.  Mostly on a Sunday I seem to recall.  And in those days jumping over that barbed wire fence you see there was not a problem.  So that's what we would do, and then clamber down that slope to the little river and see if there were any fish, or maybe catch sight of a dipper (a rare occurrence).

Here's a snap of the men of the family in that very spot, down at the water.  All dressed up (well it was Sunday).  That's The Brother there, by the way, and our grandfather in front, with our dad in his blazer and tie (dressed for Church, not the Antrim Hills) at the back.  Taken around 1971, I would say.  I'm guessing I was behind the camera, but can't really remember...

It must have been a very dry summer that year, since there's hardly any water in the bubbling brook.  In the winter time it's a raging torrent, but you'll have to take my word for that too.