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Newsletter of the Belfast Hills Partnership
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NewsletterCaring for the Hills, their Wildlife and People
www.belfasthills.org
A series of talks, tours and exhibitions running until September will explore the legend of the Cave Hill diamond – a mysterious gem believed to have originated in the Belfast Hills area.
The Cave Hill diamond is reputed to have been embedded into the face of the hill. It was said that ancient mariners set their course into Belfast by its reflected light and some vessels fired at the orb in the hope of dislodging it. It has been sung about in ballads and is part of the folklore of the city that it sparkled over. One tale is that it even adorned Finn McCool’s wristwatch. But it hit the big time in
1880s Belfast when it was written in Henry Bassett’s Book of Antrim that a young lad by the name of Hanna had found the diamond and sold it to a hatter in the city.
Ten years later in Belfast, stories and tales abounded describing ‘a monstrous gem’ that ‘dazzled by its glints’. The hatter, a John Erskine, with a business in North Street, had advertised and displayed the Cave Hill diamond in his store window for all to see.
Passing away in 1907, it was thought Mr Erskine had sold the stone and that
A new era has been heralded as the Partnership settles into brand new offices in Hannahstown Hill.
The new centre for the charity is at the Social Economy Village on Hannahstown Hill in the western reaches of the Belfast Hills.
It was a red letter day in May when staff took possession of our new flagship headquarters.
The new offices - supplied by Work West Enterprise Agency - are a clear indicator of the establishment and growth of the Partnership since its launch in 2005.
Dr Jim Bradley, Partnership Manager paid tribute to the management and staff at the Colin Glen Trust where our offices were located in the initial years following the inception of the Belfast Hills Partnership.
“We owe a great debt of gratitude to
our partner the Colin Glen Trust and we were sad to leave,” he said.
“The Partnership however, is developing and forging ahead with its aims of protecting the Belfast Hills and enhancing the public sites located within them. We are absolutely delighted with our brand new premises in the new Social Economy Village at the bottom of Hannahstown Hill, where we have worked with the community in the past.
“It’s a great boon for the Belfast Hills Partnership and a tremendous step forward for social business in west Belfast,” said Dr Bradley.
Our new offices are located at 9 Social Economy Village, Hannahstown Hill, Belfast BT17 0XS, opposite the offices of the Andersonstown News and directly above WorkWest, just off the Glen Road.
New dawn for Belfast Hills PartnershipIssue 8 | Summer 2009
Cave Hill diamond events adds sparkle to summer
the Cave Hill diamond was lost from Belfast forever. That is until now - and this summer the Linen Hall Library and Belfast City Council are offering a series of events uncovering this part of the heritage of the Belfast Hills.
For further details on the events run throughout the summer on the Cave Hill diamond logon to www.linenhall.com
The Great Geocaching Challenge
Aliens – be very afraid
May the force be with all those who turned out on a rainy Saturday morning to volunteer for our Exterminate All Aliens day at Colin Glen.
A determined bunch of eco-warriors took on the alien invasive plant Himalayan Balsam that is threatening the habitat of Colin Glen river valley.
The Belfast Hills Partnership and the Colin Glen Trust joined forces to help combat the spread of the plant that invades the river bank system.
And as you can see from these pictures, the volunteers helped bag scores of the alien plant that needs to be taken out by the root
before the seeds develop and sow downstream along the river.
Dr Lizzy Pinkerton said the hard work and dedication of the volunteers was an inspiration.
“There really is a desire from the people in Belfast and beyond to become involved directly in the work we do. Our event at the start of June
brought out those people who care about the
Belfast Hills and like us, want to work to improve and preserve them. A big well done to all who turned out and helped us in this work,” she said.
July sees hi-tech trekkies exploring the great outdoors on the Belfast Hills Geocaching Challenge.
So if you like walking but want a fun purpose then using global positioning technology is the thing to be at this summer.
Geocaching is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking ‘treasure’ using a GPS (Global Positioning System).
It was developed by the United States Department of Defense and managed by the United States Air Force, but is now widely used technology to help people find places and objects.
The gadgets are great if you have a family who would enjoy an added activity like a treasure hunt when exploring the great outdoors. For other people geocaching is the perfect way to discover locations while in search of the caches.
The Belfast Hills Partnership geocaching series will lead you to 14 different caches across the Belfast
Hills enabling you to discover some of the sites, wildlife, history and beauty of these locations for yourself. For the first 10 people who find all 14 of the caches, the Partnership will reward one year’s free membership of our new Friends of the Belfast Hills group. This prize entitles you to attend exclusive events, avail of discounts and receive newsletters and other literature as well as a unique Friends badge.
GPS devices can retail at about £80 and many mobile phones now have GPS. Why not use your car satnav? Many of them have the function to type in co-ordinates.
Hours of summer fun, adventure and exploring awaits the geocacher. So get geocaching this summer and explore the Belfast Hills and beyond.
Click www.belfasthills.org for more information on our site or click www.geocaching.com for more information.
This event runs all through summer. There are no admission charges – just provide your own GPS.
For directions to any of the public sites in the Belfast Hills look up www.belfasthills.org and click on ‘where to walk’. Alternatively contact staff directly on 028 9060 3466.
Get a healthy new you this springHave a flutter this summerDo you know your emperors from your green veined? Or your wood white from your orange tip?
Getting up close and personal this summer with the fascinating butterflies that live on the Belfast Hills has never been easier with these pictures of some of the species to look out for.
Slievenacloy Local Nature Reserve - where the Partnership held its butterfly walk this July - and Glenside Community Woodland are great spots for butterflies in the hills. The good news for our local environment is that they are increasingly becoming home to some of our rarest varieties.
Two years ago a dark green fritillary was discovered – the first spotting of this species in the Colin Valley area since the 1960s.
But the Belfast Hills could still become a habitat again for one of our rarest species.
Our holy grail of butterflies in Northern Ireland is the marsh fritillary.
Though the insect was once prevalent on Irish
The secret’s out at Belfast Zoo. Many of our native and often underground residents have formed their own group enticingly called ‘The Secret Zoo’ – and they even feature in their own poster!
Not content to have the Barbary lions and the elephants take all the applause, animals that live on Cave Hill are the focus of a new group formed by zookeepers eager to promote the delights and importance of our native species.
The Zoo’s education officer John Fisher said the initiative highlighted the wealth of local wildlife that lives around the zoo enclosures.
Among the rich diversity of animals around the greater zoo area are carnivores like foxes, badgers and even a pine marten. Insectivores include pygmy shrews and hedgehogs. With birds such as long eared owls, kingfishers and water rail flocking to the secret zoo, there are lots of native species rubbing shoulders with exotic and endangered animals.
“The long eared owls actually come down and visit our gorillas,” said John.
“Cave Hill is such a great site for local animals so we decided to put up some signs about the animals that live here but we don’t often see,” he said.
Get ahead in heritage at Colin GlenA stunning display board and publication on the heritage of Colin Glen and Suffolk has been launched by the Colin Glen Trust.
And the inaugural event with a tour of the heritage of the site looks to be a sure winner with tales of days gone by around Colin Glen.
Get along to the first tour on August 9 to learn about the river that turned the great mill wheels of industrial linen production in Belfast and the bleach greens of the McCance family that formed the large estate in the early 1800s.
The tour entitled the Colin Glen Heritage Trail is a circular stroll along the five bridges of Colin Glen Forest Park. The more adventurous walker will soon be able to follow a longer trail – due to be opened in August – to the upper glen and all the way to Divis Mountain.
Other subjects on the tour will bring alive the ‘black bull of Colin Glen’, the highwayman Ness O’Haughan and the Colin Mass rock as well as prehistoric times told in the rich array of dinosaur fossils found in the river through the years.
Admission £3 per adult, £2 per child.
Contact Colin Glen Trust 028 9061 4115 for further information – early booking is advisable.
The secret zoo
Top to bottom: Marsh fritillary, green veined white, emperor moth, peacock
soil, it has declined in numbers over the last century and the butterfly is now in danger of becoming totally extinct.
Even the thought of spotting a marsh fritillary in summer or finding a web in autumn gets butterfly experts into a flutter. It also throws up the possibility of a colony - a tantalizing prospect for many conservationists. So keep those eyes peeled, take a photo if you can and show us what you’ve seen. You never know, you could be the first to bring evidence of the elusive marsh fritillary in flight again in the Belfast Hills.
The Partnership has formed an exciting new group that will give people an opportunity to advance the cause of caring for the Belfast Hills.
The “Friends of the Belfast Hills” group has been established to enable people to care for the Hills and support the Belfast Hills Partnership Trust in its work and aims. This is your opportunity to help us care for the Hills.
The benefits you receive are:
Knowing that you’re helping to conserve and protect the Belfast Hills
Our exclusive Friend of the Belfast Hills badge
Belfast Hills newsletter and other literature previews before they are made available to the public
Information about events in the Belfast Hills including exclusive Friends only activities and discounts.
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Funds raised through membership of Friends of the Belfast Hills group will be used to facilitate administration and events for the group. They will also help with the Partnership’s practical project and ongoing education work.
If you would like to become a Friend of the Belfast Hills just contact us at 028 9060 3466 or email the Partnership at [email protected]. We’ll send you a short leaflet to fill in along with a stamped addressed envelope.
Individual membership is just £10 a year, group membership £20* and junior/unwaged membership £5. Life membership is £150.
*Groups will receive one membership pack. Participation in exclusive Friends events and other event discounts will be limited to two people per event.
Coz you gotta have…
Come along to Cave Hill Country Park on Saturday July 25 for the launch of the Friends of the Belfast Hills group. ‘Our Friends on the Hill’ event will give walkers the opportunity to climb up to the first cave on a specially constructed staircase and take in the atmosphere around the Devil’s Punchbowl with characters from the past along with traditional music.
The event is free and kicks off
at 10.30am. It links in with the
‘Heritage of the Hill’ walk led
by Ben Simon from Belfast City
Council and our stall at the zoo’s
Biodiversity Fair. Call Ben on
028 9027 0350 or email
For further information contact
the Belfast Hills Partnership.
Belfast Hills Partnership
9 Social Economy Village
Hannahstown Hill
Belfast BT17 0XS
Tel: 028 9060 3466
Email: [email protected]
Caring together for
the hills, their wildlife
and people
For further information please contact:Standing Order Mandate
To: (Fill out your bank details in the section below)
Bank
Branch
Address
On receipt of this order and thereafter on the first
day of April each year, until further notice, please
pay to:
First Trust Bank
2-4 Finaghy Road North, Belfast BT10 0JA
Sort Code: 93-83-00
Account No.: 03529-094
For the credit of The Belfast Hills Partnership the sum
of £ (pounds sterling)
Debiting:
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Permit No. 90064. This material is based upon Crown
Copyright and is reproduced with the permission of Land
& Property Services under delegated authority from the
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Copyright and database rights 2009. The publishers of
this map cannot be held responsible or liable for any
loss or damage occasioned to any person acting or
refraining from action as a result of any use or reliance
on the material in this map, nor any errors, omissions or
any changes in the material. This does not affect your
statutory rights.
Caring together for
the hills, their wildlife
and people
Friends of the
Belfast Hills
Partnership
Belfast Hills Partnership 9 Social Economy VillageHannahstown HillBelfast BT17 0XSTel: 028 9060 3466Email: [email protected]
Caring together for the hills, their wildlife and peopleFor further information please contact:
Standing Order MandateTo: (Fill out your bank details in the section below)BankBranchAddress
On receipt of this order and thereafter on the first
day of April each year, until further notice, please
pay to:
First Trust Bank2-4 Finaghy Road North, Belfast BT10 0JA
Sort Code: 93-83-00Account No.: 03529-094For the credit of The Belfast Hills Partnership the sum
of £ (pounds sterling)
Debiting:
Account No.Name on accountSignature
Full NameAddress
Date / /
Permit No. 90064. This material is based upon Crown
Copyright and is reproduced with the permission of Land
& Property Services under delegated authority from the
Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office,©Crown
Copyright and database rights 2009. The publishers of
this map cannot be held responsible or liable for any
loss or damage occasioned to any person acting or
refraining from action as a result of any use or reliance
on the material in this map, nor any errors, omissions or
any changes in the material. This does not affect your
statutory rights.
Caring together for the hills, their wildlife and people
Friends of theBelfast HillsPartnership
A long-established Belfast Hills community – past, present and future – turned out in force at the inaugural Hannahstown Community Festival.
The three-day event in May provided a great opportunity for friends, old and new, to see the facilities within the centre and avail of the stunning vista from the hill. There were lots of great yarns told and events recounted of days gone by with exhibitions, old newspaper articles and artefacts from times past.
A tea dance was held and there was entertainment for the children of the community. The Belfast Hills Partnership supplied pictures for the photo exhibition and Dr Jim Bradley our Partnership Manager gave a talk on the heritage of the hill that overlooks the west of the city towards the Mourne Mountains.
“It was a great occasion and one the Partnership was proud to be part of. Our aim is to strengthen communities
in the Belfast Hills and also to preserve the heritage of historic and thriving places like Hannahstown where there is a strong community spirit to this day,” said Jim.
“I would like to congratulate Festival Manager Karen Gowdy and all those in Hannahstown for such a great event. We hope the festival will go from strength to strength.”
Hannahstown recalls the past at community event
Some of the old objects on display at the festival
Wildlife portraits and stunning landscapes of the Belfast Hills are making such exhibitionists of themselves as our photography exhibition continues to delight and enthral onlookers.
From Belfast Zoo to Belfast’s Central Library, our unique display of images from the Belfast Hills has brightened up many a small indoor space with the big outdoors.
If your workplace, office, church or community centre would like to host this stunning display of photographs of the Belfast Hills - free of charge - just contact Andrea McKernon on 028 9060 3466 or email [email protected]
The hills are the stars!
It’s hard to think of a better place to walk your dog than in the Belfast Hills. If the weather is reasonable many dog owners can be up in the hills in a few minutes with Fido having a great time compared to pounding the usual streets or park footpaths. We would ask however that you take the following points into consideration:
Some popular sites have big numbers of dog walkers so it’s particularly important to scoop that poop!
You may know that your barking dog wouldn’t hurt a fly but maybe that toddler isn’t so sure – keep your dog well in control when small children are about.
The most difficult point to get across is that some nesting birds, particularly upland birds such as meadow pipits,
are very nervous nesters. It has been shown in scientific monitoring surveys that just being scared away from the nest once by a dog can make some pairs abandon their eggs or even chicks in the nest. This sobering thought means that you should avoid the urge to let your dog run off the lead around the wilder heathland during nesting season – April to July – as much as you can.
This all may sound a bit killjoy but if you keep in mind these points we can all enjoy the outdoors and wildlife and your dogs can still have the time of their lives in the hills.
Jim Bradley Partnership Manager
Walking your dog in the hills
It’s your Belfast HillsContact the Belfast Hills for help and advice with any concerns or questions regarding the hills, their wildlife and people. Also, let us know what you would like to read about in future newsletters.
Charity No: XR70288 Company No: NI053189
Address: Belfast Hills Partnership, 9 Social Economy Village, Hannahstown Hill, BT17 0XSTel: 028 9060 3466 Fax: 028 9030 9867 Email: [email protected] www.belfasthills.org
STEP IN TIME
After the Return of the Ring Holywood film, many of us became aware of the American bomber which crashed into the Cave Hill.
There were many other WWII plane crashes in the Belfast Hills however which are less well-known.
Unreliable or a lack of instruments to aid the pilot, combined with regular mist in the Belfast Hills and the sheer number of airstrips around the city made combat flying – and landing – hazardous.
A particularly notable crash around Ballyutoag Hill, west of the Upper Crumlin Road is a tragic case.
Sergeant Wladyslaw Kolek (pictured) arrived at Ballyhalbert airstrip on the eastern shores of the Ards Peninsula to join his comrades in No.315 (Polish) Squadron on September 9, 1943.
On one of his first flights from here only two days later, he took off with two other pilots on a Spitfire training flight en route to Belfast. Before long the airmen were lost in low cloud banking in towards Belfast and Sergeant Kolek crashed his aircraft into Ballyutoag Hill.
His flight leader Officer Grondowski crashed to his death close to Plantation House near Lisburn. His fellow pilot Sergeant Zygmund hit high ground outside Glengormley close to Carnmoney Hill. He had a lucky escape, crashing between two pillars and even breaking off his aircraft’s wings. He survived uninjured and made his way to Glengormley police station.
Wladyslaw Kolek and Officer G r o n d o w s k i were buried two days later in St Joseph’s C h u r c h y a r d , Ballycranbeg, close to Ballyhalbert.
If you have any further information about Sergeant Kolek or the Polish airmen crashes we’d like to hear from you. Please contact Dr Jim Bradley on 028 9060 3466 or at [email protected]
They took place on a bitterly cold, dark February night in an isolated farmhouse on Black Mountain at a site known today as the Hatchet Field. Three murders were committed on the notoriously unlucky 13th day of the month and to this day the Hatchet Field murders remain one of the most infamous, baffling and evil crimes to have occurred in the Belfast Hills.
A cattle drover, William Cole, his daughter and a woman visitor to the house were found brutally murdered, apparently slain with an axe or hatchet. Whoever carried out the brutal murders stole no valuables,
but they set fire to the house before escaping. No one was ever brought to justice for the Hatchet Field murders. Local people around Hannahstown speculated widely that it was a jealousy offence, scorned love or a crime of passion. The newspapers made no reference to Cole’s wife or exactly what happened on that winter’s night, and so it has remained a mystery from that day. The gruesome triple murders spawned a local expression that if a thing perplexed someone they’d retort, “It’s as secret as Cole’s murder”. As for how the field took on the shape of a hatchet, that too remains a mystery!
The Hatchet Field Murders of 1753
Belfast Hills board director Terry Enright gives one of his talks at the site of the infamous Hatchet Field on Black Mountain
Sergeant Kolek: Polish Spitfire crash at Ballyutoag
