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HELEN'S BAY |
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If you're not walking, you should follows a signpost off the A2 to
reach HELEN'S BAY , which is also a stop on the Belfast-Bangor train
line. It's a rather twee but restful little place, with a red-painted
Scots Baronial-style station. Down at the bay itself, a walking path
leads east to Grey Point Fort (April-Sept Mon & Wed-Sun 2-5pm; Oct-March
Sun 2-5pm; free), positioned to command the mouth of Belfast Lough,
along with its sister fort at Kilroot on the other side. The fort has
what you'd expect by way of quarters and stores, as well as an
impressive battery of gun emplacements, ready to challenge the shipping
that entered the lough during the two world wars. In the event, the two
six-inch breech-loading guns were never fired except in practice (local
residents had to be warned to open their windows and doors to prevent
blast damage), apart from one occasion in World War II, when a merchant
ship failed to respond to the signal "heave to or be sunk" and received
a warning shot across its bows. The guns were sold for scrap in 1957
when the Coast Artillery was disbanded. After the fort was opened to the
public in 1987 an identical six-inch gun was relocated here from the
prison on Spike Island in Cork harbour. The Battery Observation Post and
Fire Command Post are today staffed by dressed-up mannequins, like
stills taken from a war movie - though they're now staring straight into
a growth of trees that have sprung up to obscure the view. There's also
a selection of photos showing the original guns and their positions; but
it's really as a viewpoint with an atmosphere of military history,
rather than the other way round, that the fort is worth visiting
nowadays.
Should you want to stay, there's a classy B&B , Carrig-Gorm , 27 Bridge
Rd (tel 028/9185 3680; £40-55), with equally stylish Mediterranean food
in Carriage Nouveau (Tues-Sat eves & Sunday lunch; booking required on
tel 028/9185 2841).
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