Welcome to another Thursday Doors from the lovely seaside town of Ballycastle in County Antrim and this week features the harbour area. There are quite a few diverse food shops along the promenade and I've sampled most of their goods over the past few years. All are delicious and left me wanting more.

Ballycastle has a connection with Guglielmo Marconi, known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission, development of Marconi's law, and a radio telegraph system. In fact, he has quite a connection with Ireland in that his wife was Annie Jameson, whose grandfather founded the Jameson Whiskey distillery. In 1898 Marconi's assistants successfully contacted Rathlin Island by radio from Ballycastle. Lloyd's Insurance company, London financed the experimental wireless link to test how well a signal would be received on the mainland from the island. Marconi made a preliminary survey but the work was given to his right-hand man, George Kemp, who hired Edward Glanville, a Trinity College Dublin graduate, to assist him. They in turn hired islander Johnny Cecil as a labourer. I'll leave a link to their story below, which tells of the unfortunate death of the young college graduate. *

While walking around the harbour I spotted a bright orange boat standing out from all the others and I had to get a closer look.

It looks like an enclosed lifeboat in the process of being refurbished as a leisure craft. I've seen some larger ones online made into houseboats and they are fabulous.

One of the Fisheries Protection Vehicles that patrol the coastal waters in the Antrim area.

Across the harbour you can see a helter skelter slide in the playground. I think it's there for the summer and I bet there's a nice view from the top. That's Fair Head in the background in the next photograph.

Thanks for touring the harbour of Ballycastle with me on this week's Thursday Doors and if you'd like to go further afield, Dan has a great selection of links over on his blog that will bring you to some fascinating locations.

Marconi and Ballycastle *

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