Day 10 2010
8 June 2010
Friday saw the first of our MBR talks with Ruairi O’Baoill talking about the Hidden History of Belfast, this proved to be very popular with a full house. This week sees Doctor John O’Keeffe and ‘Down the town and under the ground - historic settlements in Northern Ireland’, don’t forget to book your place - you can do this by calling us on 028 9054 3159 or email mbr@doeni.gov.uk.
The main NIEA Archaeology Days events over the weekend were at Bellaghy Bawn and Grey Abbey.
‘All Our Yesterdays’ at Bellaghy Bawn proved to be very popular with lots of people turning out to meet our musket man and other people from Bellaghy’s history. Visitors were able to sample crafts and see other activities that would have taken place in the 17th century. The spinning demonstrations were very popular and most people were both amused and horrified when they came across the 17th century doctor and their medical instruments!
Some pictures from the event below:
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Grey Abbey was also blessed with great weather, very appropriate for an event with a gardening theme! Our 2 herb specialists were very popular with visitors as were the 12th century monks demonstrating their crafts and skills. Some of our own experts demonstrated their skills in keeping the Abbey in good condition. Children enjoyed competitions that we had arranged and everyone was very complimentary about our new display in the visitor centre.
Some pictures from the event below:
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Other events over the weekend included the National Trust’s Medieval Festival at Downhill, where visitors witnessed Knights sword fighting, jousting displays and lots of other historical enactments and demonstrations. Again, good weather helped make this a memorable day for all. Down Museum also started their programme of historical tours with a bus trip around some of our Early Christian sites in the Lecale.
This week has lots of interesting Archaeology Days events coming up. I’m just going to mention them in passing as there’ll be a lot more detail on each of them through the week.
Keep watching this space for more detail on these and other upcoming events, but do check out the calendar as some of them need to be pre-booked.
Gail Pollock is a photographer in the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and co-ordinates Archaeology Days.
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